Free Republic

Like many Americans, I’m very concerned about the efforts underway to rush through the 2,000 page Pelosi health care bill this weekend. Why the rush? That’s a lot of pages to read. Why not give everyone the chance to read it and debate it? How much will this bill cost us? It’s unclear because the figures coming out of Washington keep changing – and always in the direction of costing more, not less. The latest numbers show it will cost more than a trillion dollars over the decade, but when has a government program ever come in on or under...

WEST PALM BEACH — Incited by poor graduation rates in Palm Beach County, a national civil rights group sued the state Thursday, alleging it failed to ensure that all students receive the high-quality education guaranteed under the Florida Constitution. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the school district directly last year, but the case was dismissed on the grounds that the district was not the right party to sue. Now the national and state arms of the ACLU are bringing a class-action suit against the state on behalf of Palm Beach County students and parents. The lawsuit, filed in Palm...

Generation Cynical Sarah Carlsruh, November 6, 2009 “Cynicism exists. It’s toxic,” said Michael Josephson at an October 29th presentation on “High School Character” at the National Press Club. Josephson is president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics (JIE), which recently released its study on the link between high school attitudes and subsequent adult conduct. In its study, the Institute found that “younger generations are significantly more likely to engage in all forms of dishonest conduct than those who are older.” This raises the question, is the study measuring the increasing moral degradation of society or simply the fact that older...

Many of us parents just learned that ONE teacher complained that it offended her and they nixed the tradition. We are HOPPING mad and plan to do something about it. Any EFFECTIVE ideas????

American teenagers have more pregnancies, births and abortions than teens in other industrialized countries. Approximately 4 million teens contract a sexually transmitted disease each year. About 820,000 girls become pregnant before they turn 20. Teens are having sex. There is no doubt about that, so does it help that the government will not fund a sex education program that teaches safe sex? 75 percent of parents say they would like their children to be taught both abstinence and safe sex. Yet, one-third of American high schools are teaching abstinence-only sex education. Other schools avoid the subject altogether. If sex education...

Elementary Epidemic: 11 Uncovered Videos Show School Children Performing Praises to Obama By John Nolte Created 2009-11-04 10:29 Big Hollywood has already posted [1] a couple [2] disturbing videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to President Obama, but when eleven more dropped in our email box it came as quite a shock. What seemed like an aberration now appears to be a troubling pattern. Maybe “epidemic” is a better word. Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last because the further down you go, the younger the children — brace yourself for kindergartners – except for...

Talk radio host and best selling author Mark Levin will join with Michelle Bachmann on the Capital Steps on Thursday at noon. Concerned Americans will join the top conservatives to protest the Pelosi nationalized health care disaster. From the Representative Bachmann’s website: Bachmann Calls on the American People to Bring the Town Hall To Washington “This is the deciding moment and the people need to make sure their representatives know where they stand.” Washington, D.C., Nov 2 - WHAT: Health Care “House Call” on Washington Press Conference WHO: Republican Members of Congress Americans concerned about our health care future Other...

Manager claims ignorance of his own candidate's past, including Rev. Wright Obama campaign manager David Plouffe claims President Obama's campaign staff had done "zero research" on its candidate and was not aware of the inflammatory statements and views of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Plouffe, whose firm was hired to run Obama's presidential campaign, made the statement in a forthcoming book. While Plouffe and his staff may not have done their homework on Obama's radical associates, it may be hard for political insiders to believe some of Obama's other key advisers during the campaign were not aware of Wright's controversial views. One...

House Republicans Find 111 New 'Bureaucracies' in Health Care Bill In its latest attempt to portray Democrats' reform package as an unwieldy expansion of federal government in the health care sector, the House Republican Conference circulated what it called a list of "new boards, bureaucracies, commissions and programs" created in the House health care bill. House Republicans claimed Monday that the health care reform bill pushed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi would create a whopping 111 new "federal bureaucracies." In its latest attempt to portray the Democrats' reform package as an unwieldy expansion of federal government in the health care sector,...

I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! ! The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting...

President Obama’s highly controversial Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, is concerned about the heterosexual indoctrination of children in our public schools. In his bizarre view: “we all know what’s promoted in our schools: Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools. Every time kids read Romeo and Juliet or they’re encouraged to go to the prom or whatever it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country. And you know what, it doesn’t work. The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But they’re still...

Everything has a fundamental essence, a quality that makes it uniquely itself. Take an orange, for example. It's not only a citrus fruit -- it's an orange-colored citrus fruit. Horticulturists can alter its size, its texture, its sweetness, and even (to a limited extent) its color, but as long as its color is orange, the fruit remains "an orange" because that color is its definition. Change the color, however, and suddenly you have the un-orange, the anti-orange. You have something completely different that no longer contains the essence of the original fruit. Lose the essence and you lose the orange....

Schools Are Where Stimulus Saved Jobs, New Data Show By MICHAEL COOPER October 30, 2009 The best symbol of the $787 billion federal stimulus program turns out not to be of a construction worker in a hard hat, but rather of a classroom teacher saved from a layoff. On Friday, the Obama administration released the most detailed information yet on the jobs created by the stimulus. Preliminary data showed that of the 640,239 jobs created or saved, 325,000, or more than half, were jobs in education that school districts claimed were saved when stimulus money averted the need for layoffs....

This press release is fresh - not up on his website yet ... Pelosi’s Halloween Healthcare Horrors: Death for the Baby Boomers, Jail for the Middle Class, Free Healthcare for Illegal Aliens By Congressman John Carter Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled the long-awaited healthcare “reform” bill in the House of Representatives. It is a horrific assault on the health, economy, and freedoms of this country, especially our senior citizens who rely on Medicare. It was created behind closed doors, with Republicans, who represent nearly half the country, literally locked out of the room by Democrats. Democrat staffers had the...

OREGON, Ohio — A furious Ohio mother says her 7-year-old son, who has had problems with medications, was vaccinated for swine flu at school against her wishes. Kim Lutheran works as a nurse and says her son, Matthew, has had bad reactions to medicine. So, she says she signed for "no consent" on a vaccination form and then circled her intentions with a black marker to make things clear to the boy's public school in the Toledo suburb of Oregon. SNIP Deputy Health Commissioner Larry Vasko says his agency has responded by changing the consent forms, telling parents not to...

The Democrats have beaten the Republicans to court in NY-23, obtaining an order to show cause that requires the impounding of voting machines for what is expected to be another tight congressional special election. "Most of the time, you don't bring this until the day after the election, and then only if you think the race will be close," said attorney Frank Hoare, whom I reached on his cell phone as he was driving back to Albany after filing the order in Elizabethtown. "The Republicans usually play games and start the action the day of the election; in an effort...

Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Advocated ‘Queering Elementary Education’ Wednesday, October 28, 2009 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama’s safe schools czar wrote a foreword to a book in 1999 that called for elementary school children to explore their sexual identities, for teachers to incorporate homosexual themes in grades K-5, for discarding a “hetero-normative” approach to education and for “acknowledging children as sexual beings.” Kevin Jennings, now the assistant deputy secretary for education who heads the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, began the foreword to Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling (Rowan...

October is 'Gay History Month' - being pushed in schools. Radical "history" includes founders of modern porn movement. It's another one of those things that most parents don't even know is happening. And school officials like it that way. Barack Obama declared June to be "Gay Pride Month." April is reserved for the homosexual "Day of Silence" in public schools. But for the last dozen years the homosexual movement has pushed October as "Gay History Month" as an "educational" experience for schoolchildren across America, including encouraging kids to "come out". And this year is as strong as ever. It's yet...

On the face, this kid has it.If he has no issues, this kid can win easily. As for comments I made on the race being the testing ground for conservatives?I still hold to the belief below on the Flordia Republican senate primary race being the testing ground for conservatives, but the New York race with Hoffman has added some interest in that it could become the catalyst in the conservative movement. You have to hand it to the bigwigs within the Republican party. They know how to run a duplicitous campaign on smaller government. It should be obvious now, that...

Medical Research Assistance by Mrs. Bulldog Dedicated to: Our Little Princess—May she live a long and fertile life “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.” – Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff. Well, you probably are all wondering why I have been silent about Obama declaring a “National Emergency” Friday evening (he always releases critical news on Friday night in an attempt to bury the story by Monday when most of the editors come back from their weekend break—by then it is...

California's educrats have put out new rules for teaching Islamic studies to seventh-graders in public schools, and they are as biased as ever. They'll also likely spread eastward. The lesson guidelines adopted by the bellwether state whitewash the violence and oppression of women codified in Islamic law, or Shariah. And they're loaded with revisionist history about the faith. In fact, "wife beating is allowed under Shariah" today, she added. "It allows a woman seen without a headdress to be flogged, punishes rape victims, and calls for beheading for adultery." California's course on world religions also omits Islam's long history of...

Catholic Families for America PAC, a Key Catholic Activism Group, Endorses Doug Hoffman in NY-23 Special ElectionCFA Executive Director: "Doug Hoffman embodies what our group promotes: pro-family stances on every important issue--from taxes to healthcare to abortion--facing Americans. Given the radicalism of his opponents, the choice is clear in NY-23."Contact: Dr. Kevin Roberts, Catholic Families for America, 512-686-3125, kroberts@catholicfamiliesusa.org WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today the Catholic Families for America PAC, a national pro-family political action committee, announced their endorsement of Doug Hoffman, Conservative Party candidate for Congress in next week's special election for New York's 23rd Congressional District....

Blasts the entitlement mentality of today's children.... VIDEO AT LINK"We must stop teaching them that losers get a trophy just like winners do"

http://conservativehq.com/petitions Here is our chance to sign a petition to request the RNC to " Dump Dede"!

Muslims say jump and our public school officials ask how high? Don't be surprised if their next demand is to ban all pork products. Besides, respect is supposed to be a two-way street. From From the "Non-Muslim Subjects of the Islamic State" chapter of Reliance of the Traveller A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law o11.4 (6) are forbidden to openly display wine or pork,

Obama’s “Safe Schools” czar, Kevin Jennings, founded and led GLSEN for 18 years. A current GLSEN lesson plan for “LGBT History” -- intended for schoolchildren – celebrates gay and lesbian activists from the 1950s and ’60s. It recommends the film “Gay Pioneers” which profiles several practitioners and promoters of pornography. GLSEN recommends “Gay Pioneers” for classroom use, for showing at a Gay-Straight Alliance club meeting (invite other clubs!), for a school assembly, or for donation to the school library. (In the past, GLSEN’s website has recommended readings for children describing -- and implicitly endorsing -- adult-child sex and sexual experimentation...

Step by step destroying our values: Clinton announced the United States would reverse Bush administration opposition to international small arms control, potentially paving the way for the British-led effort, which calls for a vote by the U.N. General Assembly by year’s end.

The crucial Nov. 3 special election in upstate New York features two candidaties -- liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava and Democrat Bill Owens -- connected to the Working Families Party (WFP) which is the New York political arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). <snip> With both Big Labor and ACORN working to defeat the Conservative -- who is also being attacked by the national GOP Establishment -- Hoffman's campaign is sending out a nationwide call for volunteers to help match the "community organizers" being brought into the 23rd District by his major-party opponents. "We need boots...

High school student Chad Farnan, 17, speaks at a campaign fundraiser for Shawn Black, a GOP candidate for the 70th Assembly District, earlier this month. The legal group that represents Farnan, Advocates for Faith & Freedom, has been ordered to pay $19,688 in legal fees. SANTA ANA – In a legal twist that challenges the notion of what a prevailing party is, a federal court clerk on Friday awarded $19,688 in court-related fees to the attorneys who represented high school teacher James Corbett, sued two years ago for making anti-Christian comments in class. Milli Borgarding, the deputy in charge of...

WASHINGTON - During consideration of H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions. The Waters amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced mortgages" to join Federal banking regulators in advising the...

A former music teacher for Mentor Schools has admitted sexually assaulting a high school girl during a 16-month period. Barry Valentine, 35, of Mentor, pleaded guilty Thursday to 16 counts of sexual battery — one for each month the assaults occurred — in Lake County Common Pleas Court. He now faces up to 80 years in prison and/or a $160,000 fine when he is sentenced Dec. 7 by Judge Vincent A. Culotta. Valentine repeatedly sexually assaulted the victim from July 2007 through February 2008, Assistant Lake County Prosecutor Mark Bartolotta said. “At the time, she was 15 and then 16...

THE WEEKLY STANDARD just received a statement from Sarah Palin endorsing conservative Doug Hoffman for Congress: The people of the 23rd Congressional District of New York are ready to shake things up, and Doug Hoffman is coming on strong as Election Day approaches! He needs our help now. The votes of every member of Congress affect every American, so it's important for all of us to pay attention to this important Congressional campaign in upstate New York. I am very pleased to announce my support for Doug Hoffman in his fight to be the next Representative from New York's 23rd...

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world. The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned. And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove...

New York Teen Arrested in Columbine-Style Plot October 20, 2009 A 15-year-old boy is being held in a psychiatric hospital after he stockpiled gasoline, propane, fuses and a machete for a planned attack at a New York school on the anniversary of the Columbine High School killings, police sid. The boy, whose name was withheld, was arrested Monday evening after police searched his home in Monroe, 45 miles northwest of New York City. Police found 16-ounce bottles of gasoline, a torch, a machete, a black trench coat, two computers, three propane tanks and several other electronic devices, MyFoxNY.com reported. Police...

We would not have to ask the above question if public education had not become the great, costly, and tragic failure that it is. It has failed the children, but in reality it has not failed the progressives. They were the ones who engineered the dumbing-down process which parents and taxpayers continue to pay for. But it is the children who suffer in terms of becoming intellectually disabled, semi-literate, disoriented, frustrated, and terribly unhappy. But what is even a bit disheartening is that many liberals still believe that government schooling has been a noble experiment. Perhaps Walter Lippmann, the great...

Obama administration communications director commended the wisdom of mass murdering Communist Chairman Mao in her address to high school students this past June. Dunn cited Mao and Mother Teresa as her two favorite political philosophers. I wrote about Dunn's address here, John here; both posts include video of Dunn's address. Dunn said to the assembled students: A lot of you have a great deal of ability. A lot of you work hard. Put them together and that answers the "why not" question. There is usually not a good reason. And then the third lesson and tip actually comes from two...

The Obama administration’s safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings, has accused the Baptists, the Boy Scouts and sports fans of anti-gay bias, and he has advocated a special high school for gay teens as well as gay-straight alliance clubs for every high school in America. Jennings, who was a prominent homosexual activist before being named director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, also has called for kindergarteners to be taught to respect all sexual orientations, while insisting that “ex-gay messages” and “Christian values” are ‘misused to isolate or denigrate lesbian, gay, bisexual...

History Unfolding I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels,...

Obama Czar Agrees With Mao, Too, and Thinks Free Market is "Nonsense" http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-czar-agrees-with-mao-too-and-thinks-free-market-is-nonsense/ Breitbart.TV and Naked Emperor News

Calls for psychiatric care, treating 'medical conditions' on campus - The House's proposed health national health plan would establish "school-based health clinics" on campuses, and one group is warning it could give Planned Parenthood direct access to American schoolchildren at taxpayer expense. The American Family Association, or AFA, is warning that Section 2511 of H.R.3200, or the House plan, titled "School-Based Health Clinics," allows a "non-profit health agency" to serve as a "sponsoring facility" for health clinics that operate during school hours. AFA has provided a document with actual language from H.R.3200 that outlines requirements for the program. AFA notes...

Below are some suggestions for lawmakers and judges to bring about a more just country: Intolerance-Justice should be based on each case and circumstance involving current law and precedent. The idiotic case of six-year-old Zachary Christie is akin to the type of lack of foresight that has parents throughout the land scratching their heads. Zachary had NO CLUE he was committing a crime with a nonflexible sentence of 45 days in a reform school. His crime? As a proud new Cub Scout, he brought a multifaceted eating and tool utensil to his school to show his little friends. Conclusion? When...

Call him Mr. Zero Tolerance. The upstate New York school superintendent who suspended an Eagle Scout for 20 days for keeping a 2-inch utility knife locked in his car is unwilling to speak to the teen's family or bend in his ruling. Lansingburgh Central School District Superintendent George J. Goodwin, 55, said in a written statement that his district "has an established policy of zero tolerance with respect to the possession of weapons of any kind on school property or in school buildings." But nowhere in the school district's rule book, which is published online, is there any mention of...

Is it odd how anti-Palin polls pop-up all over the MSM? The few and infrequent polls that are less favorable to Governor Palin always seem to be big news. The reality is over 90% of the many 2012 polls show she is the front runner. Michelle Malkin’s Hotair.com offered the latest Poll on 2012 & Governor Palin with Sarah leading with 63%

Now that the Senate Finance Committee has approved its health care bill, it’s a good time to step back and take a look at the long term consequences should its provisions be enacted into law. The bill prohibits insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and from charging sick people higher premiums. [1] It attempts to offset the costs this will impose on insurance companies by requiring everyone to purchase coverage, which in theory would expand the pool of paying policy holders. However, the maximum fine for those who refuse to purchase health insurance is $750. [2]...

Now that the Senate Finance Committee has approved its health care bill, it’s a good time to step back and take a look at the long term consequences should its provisions be enacted into law. The bill prohibits insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and from charging sick people higher premiums. [1] It attempts to offset the costs this will impose on insurance companies by requiring everyone to purchase coverage, which in theory would expand the pool of paying policy holders. However, the maximum fine for those who refuse to purchase health insurance is $750. [2]...

snip Also problematic is the resolution’s attempt to make the restriction of free speech a human right. In fact, it is free speech that constitutes a human right and not its restriction. Ideologies, ideas and religions do not, and should not be afforded “human rights." They should be fair game for criticism, analysis, open debate and discussion. Religions and ideologies cannot be “defamed." Once ideologies are afforded protection from criticism, it is in direct contradiction to individual human rights.snip

Now that the Senate Finance Committee has approved its health care bill, it’s a good time to step back and take a look at the long term consequences should its provisions be enacted into law. The bill prohibits insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and from charging sick people higher premiums. [1] It attempts to offset the costs this will impose on insurance companies by requiring everyone to purchase coverage, which in theory would expand the pool of paying policy holders. However, the maximum fine for those who refuse to purchase health insurance is $750. [2]...

Some things you may not know about Palin: What A Fisherman Says About Sarah Palin by Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman As posted in comments on Greta Van Susteren’s article referencing the MoveOn.org ad about Sarah Palin. The last 45 of my 66 years I’ve spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here’s the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It’s not about persona, style, rhetoric, it’s about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I’m about to mention...

Yesterday, the US News & World Report published an essay, "Michelle Obama, Teachers Are Key to a Successful Economy." It begins: Michelle Obama: Teachers Are Key to a Successful Economy By Michelle Obama Posted October 15, 2009 Michelle Obama is the first lady of the United States. That's a lot of Michelle Obamas Anyway, after personalizing Michelle and the kids, Michelle's ghost-writer inserts the boiler-plate about the challenges and lack of rewards of teaching, which has been eternally true, and spring-boards into the reason for the exercise -- placing community organizers into the public schools -- Michelle refers to them...

Fifty-three Republican congressmen yesterday demanded that President Obama fire his embattled "safe schools czar," Kevin Jennings. Mr. Jennings' bizarre sexual agenda for American grade schools is one reason the president should dump this dangerous radical. Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword to a 1998 book titled, "Queering Elementary Education." The book he endorsed was a collection of essays by different authors who supported teaching young children about homosexuality. Mr. Jennings' foreword explains why he thinks it is important to start educating children about homosexuality as early as activist-educators can get away with doing so. "Ask any elementary-school teachers you know and...