Free Republic

Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press had a good story Sunday covering the argument about education funding in Michigan. The story is worth reading in its entirety, but some parts in particular stick out and reiterate work done by Michigan Capitol Confidential and deserve to be reposted with comment. Right off the bat Egan takes on the main piece of misinformation that Democrats and some supporters of the status quo in education have been touting: Did Snyder cut $1 billion from K-12 education, as many critics claim? The answer is no, state records show. State funding for K-12 schools...

Opponents of Gov. Rick Snyder have falsely claimed for several years that he pushed through a $1 billion cut to education. Now they're doubling it. Unions and some Democrat politicians are saying the governor has cut education by $2 billion over his first three years in office. But they are ignoring another $2 billion in annual funding the state provides public schools. Michigan gives that $2 billion a year by way of numerous types of grants for things such as support for at-risk students, incentives for best practices and technology infrastructure. The $2 billion cut claim is related to the...

While members of Congress ended 2013 congratulating themselves for passing a budget, the media missed the fact that the agreement doesn't actually avoid a government shutdown. The deal reached by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) provides simply a blueprint for government spending. Congress must still pass legislation detailing specific spending before January 15, when government's spending authority expires. Government still faces a potential shutdown in a little over a week. The budget agreement passed by Congress in the closing days of last year provides what is called the "top-Line" number, setting the overall level of discretionary...

The Michigan Department of Education will make its quarterly presentation on the number of school districts in deficit to the state legislature Dec. 12. But perhaps lost in the discussion about funding is that the state and federal government have budgeted $563 million more dollars for public school K-12 education in Michigan in 2013-14 than last year despite a drop of 6,100 students. The state's School Aid Budget, which funds K-12 education, increased from $12.9 billion in 2012-13 to $13.4 billion in 2013-14. Federal dollars jumped from $1.701 billion last year to $1.764 billion in 2013-14. However, student enrollment over...

Like many districts in Michigan, Milan Area Schools suffered a reduction in student enrollment. But unlike other districts, many of the district's employees will be getting more money this year than originally planned even with the drop in enrollment. Milan Superintendent Bryan Girbach said it was because the district took a hard look at enrollment trends while unions worked with the district to get a balanced budget. The result: employees will get 1.7 percent back from their contractual concessions, Girbach said. Milan Area Schools had 2,385 students in 2012-13. It budgeted for a 7 percent reduction to 2,231 students. The...

Here is where we’re at: The Republican establishment — the guys who told us that for a trillion dollars and several thousand American casualties, we could build “Islamic democracies” that would be reliable U.S. allies in the War on Terror — say it is Ted Cruz who is “delusional” and the effort to stave off Obamacare that is “unattainable.” These self-appointed sages are, of course, the same guys who told us the way to “stabilize” and “democratize” Libya was to help jihadists topple and kill the resident dictator — who, at the time, was a U.S. ally, providing intelligence about...

The House voted unanimously Saturday morning to approve a bipartisan bill ensuring furloughed federal workers receive backpay once the government shutdown ends. The vote on the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act was 407-0. Twenty-five members didn't vote. The measure now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) had introduced a Senate version of the bill earlier this week.

The pathological liar and PSYOPS QUEEN is at it again. See her remarks starting at 01:14 in the video at link.

Via Facebook: Forced enrollment in Obama’s "Unaffordable Care Act" is weeks away. This beast must be stopped — by not funding it. Today, Todd and I joined with many of our fellow citizens to urge those in the U.S. Senate to not fund Obamacare. We The People must continue to make our voices heard and hold those elected to serve this great nation accountable. Those in the Senate and those seeking to serve there must stand strong against this devastating program before it reveals its true face now recognized by both sides of the aisle as the bureaucratic and economic...

New documents obtained by Judicial Watch, proves that the Obama administration continued to fund ACORN after all funding was banned for that organization. ACORN Housing changed their name to Affordable Housing Centers of America. All the top officials at ACORN Housing retained the same positions at AHCOA. They also retained the same tax number. Snip Since there was a federal ban on public funding of ACORN by the federal government, they should not have received a federal grant. NeighborWorks America, a public/private entity, funded by the taxpayers of the United States, determined that was a violation of federal law. Judicial...

Speaker John Boehner strongly hinted on a conference call with rank-and-file House Republicans that the upcoming continuing resolution will not be a do-or-die fight over Obamacare spending. “Our intent is to move quickly on a short-term continuing resolution [CR] that keeps the government running and maintains current sequester spending levels,” Boehner told members, according to a person on the call. While Boehner did not explicitly rule out using the CR for an Obamacare fight, other sources on the call said it was clear he preferred not to use the spending bill to draw a line in the sand. “He didn’t...

US Govt In Turmoil Over ‘Big New Al-Qaeda Plot’ While Obama Funds Them Anthony Gucciardi by Anthony Gucciardi August 4th, 2013 Updated 08/04/2013 at 5:17 pm The mainstream media is reporting on the latest ‘big terror’ threat from al-Qaeda that is apparently the ‘most significant’ threat in years, yet they simultaneously fail to mention that the Obama administration is all the while funding al-Qaeda through arming and financing Syrian rebels that have major ties to the group. obama-funding-al-qaedaSurely this essential point is at least worth mentioning when you consider the fact that Obama even initiated the large-scale arming of the...

The Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, has been holding meetings with representatives from Iran and Hizbullah after months of tension between the two sides, it was reported Sunday. The Arabic language daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported that two Hamas representatives met last month with members of Hizbullah at the Iranian embassy in Beirut. The meeting was attended by senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, the report said. During the meeting, the sides discussed a number of issues, including Iranian aid to Hamas—which has been reduced significantly in recent years. Asharq al-Awsat quoted Hamas official Ahmed Yusuf as saying that the...

There's a movement among Capitol Hill Republicans to defund Obamacare. With the president's hugely expensive national health care scheme set to take effect Jan. 1, many of the law's opponents view this fall's battles over spending and the debt as the last chance to stop it, specifically by cutting off funds for its implementation. But Republicans will not stop Obamacare. They won't defund it. Their last chance to put an end to it was the 2012 election. They lost, and the chance is gone. On Thursday, Republican Sen. Mike Lee made public a letter pledging to "not support any continuing...

And they should. CBS reoprts that NSA Director Keith Alexander made an “emergency visit” to Capitol Hill to head off a potentially embarrassing vote to defund his agency’s trawling of phone and Internet records. House Republican leaders allowed a vote on an amendment by Rep. Justin Amash to use the power of the purse to rein in the NSA, and the panic shows that the effort might well succeed in the Senate when the budget comes to the upper chamber: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO With a high-stakes showdown vote looming in the House, White House press secretary Jay...

The head of the National Security Agency made an urgent visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to try to dissuade lawmakers from voting for an amendment that would rein in their mass collection of phone records. Gen. Keith Alexander met privately with Republicans, and later Democrats, to voice the agency's concerns about an amendment to a major defense bill that would halt the blanket collection of records, including telephone call records, for people not already subject to an investigation. Part of the concern is that even entertaining the amendment on the floor could expose certain programs. snip The amendment folds...

Media outlets across the state have pounced on a comment by State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, who said this week there are a record 55 school districts now in deficit. But downplayed in much of the reporting is that 10 school districts are projected to come out of deficit, which if confirmed in November by audits, would mean there actually are four fewer districts in deficit in 2012-13 than the previous year. Michigan had 49 districts in deficit in 2011-12. Michigan Department of Education Spokeswoman Jan Ellis said this was the first year that the state did forecasts on deficits. "The...

Add the executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards to those in the education lobby pounding the drums about a "crisis" in funding for public education. In a column in MLive, the MASB's Kathy Hayes talked about the number of schools in deficit at the end of fiscal year 2012 and asked: "Are we really talking about financial mismanagement or is this predominantly a case of a steady disinvestment in education?" Her question is easy to answer. When Jennifer Granholm was governor, the state foundation allowance was increased six consecutive years from 2002-03 to 2008-09. The result? The...

The British Daily Telegraph reports that Hamas, which rules Gaza, is paying a heavy price in lost aid over its assistance to the rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Iran has made a meaningful cut in its aid to Hamas, which had previously reached amounts as large as 15 million Australian dollars per month. .....

Today I want to talk about The Troubles. I previously talked about Operation Banner An Analysis of British Operations in North Ireland.That is worth reading though it is a bit dry. So here we go. For a brief recap the problems between England and Ireland probably go back 900 years or so. We will focus a bit more on current history. The Anglo- Irish war from roughly (start and stop points are hard for guerrilla wars) 1919 to 1922 ended up partitioning Ireland into 2 entities. The 26 counties that make up the majority of Ireland were granted Dominion...