Students were assigned reading the book Unwind by Neal Shusterman.

Common Core – Deceive and Denigrate

Here’s a snippet from the mother of one of the 8th graders:

It’s a story about a time in the future, where if you are a ward of the state, or if you aren’t an excellent student, or if your parents think you are “too much trouble” and/or they no longer want you, you can be sent
to a place to be “unwound;” i.e., you are condemned to death and all your organs are donated to people who need them. All of this “unwound” stuff came about as a consequence of abortion being outlawed.

The mother of the 8th grader was uncertain whether this book is on the Common Core reading list. Missouri Watchdog did some Internet research, using the words “Alabama Common Core Unwind,” and found that this book “incorporates the Common Core state Standards….” By the way, the book is targeted for 7th through 12th grades.

I encourage you to visit Missouri Watchdog and read the suggestions for teaching the ‘lessons’ in Unwind, using children specifically singled out as a teachable moment. Example:

Have students create original harvest camp brochures, telling why parents should choose their camp to have their teens unwound. Have them market it in glowing, positive terms. It must be done on a computer, look professional, and market harvest camps in glowing, positive language. It should be a tri-fold layout. 

What goes through the minds of students while creating a brochure for an organ harvest camp that targets kids just like them? What does it take to “market” the camps in “glowing, positive language?”

Read the whole thing. It just keeps getting worse. Oh, and if you think your kids in private school are exempt, think again. I was talking to a mom of kids who go to the school at our Catholic church. They follow the same curriculum as our public school district. Then there are those charter schools.

Best-selling author Vince Flynn died today after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was one of my favorite fiction authors, and he was a great patriotic American. He’ll be missed.

Flynn was supporting himself by bartending when he self-published his first novel, “Term Limits,” in 1997 after getting more than 60 rejection letters. After it became a local best-seller, Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint, signed him to a two-book deal — and “Term Limits” became a New York Times best-seller in paperback.
The St. Paul-based author also sold millions of books in the international market and averaged about a book a year, most of them focused on Rapp, a CIA counterterrorism operative. His 14th novel, “The Last Man,” was published last year.
He counted former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton among his fans, as well as foreign leaders and intelligence community figures.
“As good as Vince was on the page — and he gave millions of readers countless hours of pleasure — he was even more engaging in person,” said Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of his publisher, Simon & Schuster. “Yes, we will miss the Mitch Rapp stories that are classic modern thrillers, but we will miss Vince even more.”
Flynn died at a hospital in St. Paul, surrounded by about 35 relatives and friends who prayed the Rosary, said longtime family friend Kathy Schneeman. She said his deep Catholic faith was an important part of his character. (Read More)

Flynn leaves behind a wife and three children.

Here’s the video from this afternoon when the sad news was announced.

Poor Tingles. Chris Matthews is trying to get that old lovin’ feeling back for President Obama, but that hot, hot Berlin sun got in the way, and kept The One from using his trusty old teleprompter.

“A lot of the problem he had today, the late afternoon sun in Berlin, I think, ruined his use of the teleprompters. His usual dramatic windup was ruined.”

In all fairness to The One, he did receive hearty applause when he said he was taking off his jacket and invited the 4,500 or so in attendance to do the same. (Yeah, I know, a far cry from the 200,000 that went to see him in 2008 when he was a lowly senator.)

Oh, and Obama also called for further nuclear reductions (and promised we would do so, too) and more action on climate change. There were no “Tear down this wall” moments.

H/T Doug Powers

On page seven of the analysis, the CBO and JCT conclude that the “Gang of Eight” bill would drive down American workers’ wages. “Taking into account all of those flows of new immigrants, CBO and JCT expect that a greater number of immigrants with lower skills than with higher skills would be added to the workforce, slightly pushing down the average wage for the labor force as a whole, other things being equal,” the report reads.

On the same page, the CBO and JCT analysis found that illegal immigrants who would receive amnesty, or legalized status, would see a spike in their income while Americans’ incomes dropped. “However, CBO and JCT expect that currently unauthorized workers who would obtain legal status under S. 744 would see an increase in their average wages,” it reads.

Similarly, a bullet point on page nine shows that CBO and JCT believe that demand for workers would “dampen,” meaning it would be harder for Americans to find jobs if the bill passed. (Read More)

With 46 million new immigrants how could it not dampen demand for workers?

The Senate’s pending immigration bill will pave the way for the arrival of 46 million legal immigrants over the next 20 years, increase the federal debt in the same time period and shrink Americans’ average wage, according Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Session’s critical reading of two new reports on the pending immigration reform bill provided by the Congressional Budget Office. (Read More)

The next paragraph of the above article quotes Marco Rubio saying how great this will be for the economy. The man is delusional. Why doesn’t he just switch parties now?

But there is a little bit of good news today. Well, possibly good news. After going through all of the reasons this bill is so bad, Front Page Magazine reported that the chances of anything passing in the House are still fairly slim.

An analysis by Amy Walter of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report puts the odds of passage in the House somewhere between slim and none.

For House Republicans, “[T]here is little short-term gain to supporting immigration legislation,” Walter says. “It won’t make them any safer in a general election and instead may make them more vulnerable in a primary.”

GOP operatives’ entreaties to House lawmakers to support the bill out of loyalty to the party are likely to fall on deaf ears. “Today, with over 40 percent of the GOP conference elected since 2010, the idea of ‘taking one for the team’ is likely to fall flat,” Walter says. “Most of these members ran to shake up Washington and have pledged to refuse to bow to party bosses.”

“[I]t’s going to take more than just talk of being a ‘good soldier’ to get House GOPers to go along with comprehensive immigration reform,” she says. (Read More)

We shall see. If Nancy Pelosi can get all of the Democrats behind a bill, then Boehner won’t need to find all that many Republicans to go along.

Yes, you read that headline right. A cat named Morris is running for mayor in the Mexican city of Xalapa. His campaign slogan is “Tired of voting for rats? Vote for a cat.” Morris, who may not even be aware that he’s running for mayor, seems to be gaining some momentum in the race.

It started as a joke between friends, but Morris the cat’s bid to become mayor of the Mexican city of Xalapa, the capital of the state of Veracruz, has now turned into a social media phenomenon with a serious message about political disenchantment.

“Morris has become an expression of how fed up people are with all the parties and a political system that does not represent us,” said Sergio Chamorro, the owner of the furry black-and-white candidate whose first campaign slogan was: “Tired of voting for rats? Vote for a cat.”

The Facebook page for the Candigato (gato means cat in Spanish) now has more than 130,000 “likes” – far more than those accrued by any of the candidates registered to stand in the Xalapa election, and more too than those of Veracruz’s current governor. Mexico will hold local elections in around half of the country on 7 July.

If Mexican politics is anything like it is here in the US, Morris would probably be a big improvement over any of his human competition. Maybe I’ll see if my cat wants to run for Congress. He couldn’t possibly be worse than that rotten Dan Maffei.

Be sure to read the whole article. There’s also a hilarious picture of a Morris t-shirt with an image and slogan eerily similar to the cat that currently inhabits the US White House.

FBI Director Robert Mueller testified that the federal government does, on occasion, use drones for domestic surveillance. But don’t worry, he said they don’t do it very often. I’m sure that makes you feel much better.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told senators the agency uses drones infrequently for surveillance in the U.S., and only in regards to specific investigations.

“Our footprint is very small,” Mueller said in testimony. “We have very few and have limited use.”

Mueller said the FBI was in “the initial stages” of developing privacy guidelines for how the agency balances civil liberty concerns with security threats.

Mueller made the revelation before the Senate Judiciary Committee after being questioned by the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). The news comes amid a debate over National Security Agency programs used to collect U.S. phone records and overseas Internet data.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Mueller that she believes drones are the most dangerous threat to the privacy of Americans, particularly the use of drones by private companies.

Mueller sought to assure Feinstein that the FBI’s use of drones was “very seldom” and only used in isolated instances. (Read More)

Oh nice, they’ve been using the drones, but haven’t yet developed privacy guidelines. Shouldn’t they have done that first?

The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees’ union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

The directive was written by Danny Werfel, a former budget official who has since been appointed acting IRS commissioner.

“The IRS always claims to be short on resources,” Grassley said. “But it appears to have $70 million for union bonuses. And it appears to be making an extra effort to give the bonuses despite opportunities to renegotiate with the union and federal instruction to cease discretionary bonuses during sequestration.”

The IRS said it is negotiating with the union over the matter but did not dispute Grassley’s claim that the bonuses are imminent. (Read More)

Sequester? What sequester?

Here is Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory explaining why he switched his political affiliation from Democrat to Republican. He talks about the history of the Republican Party, self reliance, and the dangers of big government. I just wish that long time Republicans were this articulate in explaining conservative principles, and how living by those principles brings about prosperity for the most people.

“To be truly free is to be reliant on noone other than the author of our destiny.”

Do take take the time to watch the whole video, you won’t be disappointed.

H/T Michael A.

Via Ken Gardner

Well here’s some not-so-shocking news. The Obamacare exchanges are falling behind schedule. Is there anyone out there who thought this multi-thousand page law would go well? If so, I’ve got something to sell you.

Government officials have missed several deadlines in setting up new health-insurance exchanges for small businesses and consumers—a key part of the federal health overhaul—and there is a risk they won’t be ready to open on time in October, Congress’s watchdog arm said.

The Government Accountability Office said federal and state health officials still have major work to complete, offering its most cautious comments to date about theObama administration’s ability to bring the centerpiece of its signature law to fruition.

“Whether [the government's] contingency planning will assure the timely and smooth implementation of the exchanges by October 2013 cannot yet be determined,” said the GAO in twin reports to be released Wednesday.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act created two exchanges, seeking to provide coverage for many Americans who now go without health insurance. President Barack Obama has said the exchanges will be ready on schedule in October, offering coverage to take effect Jan. 1, 2014, but he has cautioned that “glitches and bumps” are likely.

Yeah, get ready for those “glitches and bumps.” Fasten up, it’s going to be a wild ride.

In case you missed it, the Senate voted down an amendment requiring a secure border fence. What a shock.

Senators on Tuesday rejected building the 700 miles of double-tier border fencing Congress authorized just seven years ago, with a majority of the Senate saying they didn’t want to delay granting illegal immigrants legal status while the fence was being built.

The 54-39 vote to reject the fence shows the core of the immigration deal is holding. The vote broke mostly along party lines, though five Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio and the rest of the bill’s authors, voted against the fence, and two Democrats voted for it.

Republicans had offered the fence as a way to build the confidence of voters skeptical that the government will enforce its laws, but opponents said building more fencing is costly, would take too long, and shouldn’t be dictated by Washington.

“I think we should leave that to the best judgment of the Border Patrol,” said Sen. John McCain, one of the eight senators who wrote the immigration bill.

Don’t they mean one of the eight senators, plus President Obama?

We should probably stop paying attention to what the Senate is doing. They say it’s going to pass, and I would (seriously) be surprised if it didn’t pass the Senate. Watch the House and what John Boehner does. He promises not to bring a bill forward without a majority of Republicans in favor of it. What he doesn’t mention is that he can bring something forward, they can vote on it, and then the good can be stripped and the bad added back in during conference with the Senate.

Find out how to contact your congresscritter here, and the main phone number is (202)225-3121. It’s time to light up those phone lines.

… And that you had heard it all comes this little bit of news.

One of the largest public charter high schools in the nation allows a boy who identifies as female to use the girls locker room and bathrooms – despite protests from a female student who says she feels uncomfortable and vulnerable by his presence.

What’s more, the female student – who just finished her sophomore year at the Los Angeles-based Granada Hills Charter High School – claims the boy in question harassed her, touched her hair, stared strangely at her, and also peeked at girls over the stalls while they used the toilet.

“It’s amazing to me that a public school who is responsible to protect the rights of all students will blatantly ignore the Constitutional right to privacy of young female students within the locker rooms and restrooms of the school,” Robert Tyler, the girl’s attorney, told The College Fix. …

You should read the whole thing. The article goes on to note that the school in question said that they provide a “a safe environment, free from discrimination and harassment for all of its students.”  Of course, they failed to mention the normal reaction of young girls being subjected to having a boy in the locker room, staring at them, harassing them and creeping them out.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it’s almost like the powers-that-be want to traumatize the normal people so much that they become abnormal like the few they claim to want to protect. Who are they really protecting anyway? Do they think that doing this is going to help that child gain acceptance among his peers?

H/T JR

Wow! National Public Radio has some nice new digs. They showed off the new 400,000 square foot facility to the press this week. It looks beautiful, they even had a house chef preparing breakfast.

NPR recently moved from Chinatown into its new 400,000 square-foot home on North Capitol, and they’re excited about it. Eager to show off the new facility, the organization offered a tour to members of the media Tuesday morning, starting with breakfast from their in-house chefs, along with some talking points from CEOGary Knell, who outlined some impressive features of the space.

The goal in the new building was to have plenty of open space to promote collaboration, something that was difficult in the smaller, closed-office building NPR used to operate out of. The newsroom is a good example of this. Spreading 100,000 square feet over two floors, the entire room is open, with the second floor operating more like a balcony around the lower level.

Gee, I wonder who they’re collaborating with. Anyway, everyone really loves the new building, and the gong ads a nice touch. Oh, and unlike the White House, the new NPR space is open to public tours!

The tour continued through the wellness center, which is capable of simple medical procedures, the fitness center, which is staffed by a trainer, and the cafe, which utilizes the same catering company as Google. The cafe was named by a contest in which employees submitted more than 200 ideas. The winning name, Sound Bites, was entered by Stamberg, further marking her legacy at NPR and the new facility.

Overall, the impressive space was focused on integration of staff and utilization of digital media, which its old building was ill-equipped to do. The space is also open to public tours and events in its 2400 square-foot Studio One, which can seat up to 250 people.

We’re still not sure the tour wasn’t meant, maybe a little, to make other journalists jealous of the new space, but it definitely had that effect on at least us here at FBDC.

Well, a little jealousy is only normal. Who wouldn’t be jealous of working in such a lavish space, especially when one’s tax dollars help to fund the $201 million structure.

My twelve year old made the All Stars baseball team again this year. We’re very proud of him. Even though he’s not one of the most powerful players in the league he works hard, he’s smart and he knows the game. All Stars is different than the local Little League because they play other districts and could wind up playing at the state championship or even beyond that. The league wants to make sure coaches don’t cheat and try to recruit better players so they’re really strict about verifying age and residency. This is the documentation we needed to show for our son to play:

1. Your son’s original birth certificate

2. A copy of your son’s birth certificate

3. 4 documents to prove residency:

                Copy of your valid driver license

                Copy of your vehicle registration, dated between 2/1/2012 and 2/1/2013

                Copy of your NY State Insurance ID Card, dated between 2/1/2012 and 2/1/2013

                Copy of either your tax bill, cable bill or pay stub, dated between 2/1/2012 and 2/1/2013

 

4. Completed and signed Tournament Player Verification form (attached), fill out:

                Player name

                Address of parent or legal guardian

                Name (printed) of Parent/Guardian, Signature of Parent/Guardian and Date

 

5. Fully competed medical release form (attached)

Every time I wonder if Democrat Representative Dan Maffei could stoop any lower he comes out and shows his rotten face and proves that yes, he can stoop lower. This takes the cake. He blamed the brutal, horrific murder of a mother, and the rape of that woman’s young daughter, on the sequester. The man is an embarrassment to his district and the entire state of New York, but of course, so many voters buy into this garbage and actually believe it. The local news ran his impassioned plea to restore funding to the federal court system, as if that would have saved Lori Bresnahan’s life, or her daughter from being brutalized by a dangerous criminal named David Renz.

After the case made headlines, a woman told reporters that she was molested as a child by Renz. She said that in 1999, when she was 9 years old and he was 15, Renz sexually assaulted her. That case was handled in family court and the records were sealed, but at the January hearing on the child pornography case against Renz, court documents indicate, the federal magistrate mentioned Renz’s criminal history as a juvenile before authorizing the suspect’s release.

Monday, the congressman who represents the upstate New York district blamed federal spending cuts for the crime, saying that ending the curent budget sequester — implemented to reduce the federal deficit — is an obligation Congress owes to Renz’s victims. “We owe them a guarantee that this cannot happen again,” Maffei said in his House floor speech. “We owe them an end to sequester cuts affecting our federal probation system.”

Maffei had written to Hogan and Attorney General Eric Holder last month asking them to investigate the federal probation office in charge of monitoring Renz’s pre-trial release. Chief Probation Officer Matthew Brown and others in the Syracuse office have denied that the failures in supervising Renz were a result of personnel shortages or other consequences of budget cuts. Hogan’s letter to Maffei did not name the employees who were fired or demoted, but the Post-Standard had previously reported that the Steven Acquilano, the probation officer responsible for monitoring Renz, was no longer employed at the U.S. Probation Office for the Northern District of New York.

This case has been in the local news since it happened in the middle of March. Bresnehan was a school librarian in the Liverpool school district, so it’s been the topic of conversation among many of us in the community. This is the first I’ve heard of anyone blaming the the sequester for this hideous crime.

Here’s the local news report giving credence to Maffei’s allegation that this was the result of budget cuts.

Maffei was right in one sense, this guy should have been monitored more closely while he was awaiting trial for child pornography, but to blame it on the sequester is downright shameful. What did that have to do with the policy in this probation office to routinely ignore alarms set off by these monitoring bracelets? Budget cuts or not, if the probation officers involved had been doing the jobs we pay them to do this might have been prevented.

Oh, and if Maffei really does believe this crime was due to the sequester, why isn’t he going after President Obama for refusing to make targeted cuts to the federal budget? Why isn’t he going after Obama for proposing the sequester in the first place? You’ll never hear him do that because he’s a Democrat. They are nothing if not consistently dishonest and always willing to use every crisis and every horrific crime to score political points.

My apologies to those who are unfamiliar with the details of this crime. Local readers are well aware of it, but for more background read the whole piece at Viral Read and The American Spectator.