8.5 billion dollars.

That’s what is on the plate for the community group, ACORN if our leadership allows the organization to continue operating and receive money already slated to go to them.

We are so lost in the smoke now, that there are lawmakers who are actually remaining silent in the face of the videotape collected by two young people. So, should we take their silence to mean that they don’t mind the concept of under-age girls being imported illegally for prostitution – indeed, that they don’t mind a community organization offering housing to support such a business.

In the Senate, a motion to strip the funding from ACORN passed 83 for and seven against. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Roland Burris (D-IL), Robert Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) were the seven who voted to allow ACORN to continue unmolested.

If the measure goes through, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will make ACORN ineligible to receive HUD grants for programs such as housing, education and outreach.

ACORN’s funding prior to this could be measured in the range of $40 to $50 million. With that money they are happy to fund and encourage illegal businesses of this type. Just imagine, what would be possible with the nearly $8.5 billion slated to go to ACORN in the near future.

I have mentioned Lev Vygotsky, a Soviet psychologist who developed an unusual approach to the development of thought and concepts. His work was published following his death in 1934. Vygotsky’s work has been echoed in our nation’s schoolrooms for decades and is touted by the online “Encyclopedia of Marxism” as a “superior understanding of the relationship between the educator and the educated, in which the educator must ‘negotiate’ with the child or student who is credited with an active role in the learning process.”

More importantly, the quote goes on to say that “especially in the United States, Vygotsky has found a following among Community Development workers who value his concept of a ‘Zone of Proximal Development,’ in which leadership is able to facilitate intellectual and social development in struggles by communities to change their circumstances, leading to a subsequent benefit in an all-round development of conceptual ability.”

So why do I bring up Vygotsky again?

Progressivism education in the United States developed from the 1930s and promoted the ideas of social reconstructionism, active citizen participation in all spheres of life, and pulling all public institutions into democratic behaviors. The movement was greatly influenced by the writings and lectures of an educator named John Dewey. Dewey began to test his theories in the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago, which he had opened in 1896. He believed that through education, society could formulate its own purposes, and organize means and resources.

Subsequently, if you track the progressive movement in the school system, you end up with individuals like Mike Klonsky, a Maoist and friend of Weatherman terrorist group founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Klonsky originally received a $175,000 grant from the William Ayers/Barack Obama-led Annenberg Challenge to run the Small Schools Workshop. But the Annenberg Challenge was started with a grant of $500 million to support school reform in public schools throughout the United States and in Chicago, a $49.2 million grant. That money was used to build a structure of public schools paired with universities, nonprofit groups, and the Chicago Teacher’s Union. This organization helped produce a follow-on group, the Chicago Public Education Fund, which works to develop “principal and teacher leadership.”

Ayers served with Obama on Woods Fund, and promoted him to head the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which eventually spent some $160 million in the Chicago Public School system. Their cooperation on the Challenge effort occurred between 1995 and 2001.

The Challenge was developed to build support for Local School Councils. The School Councils were set up to watchdog teachers, principals and school administrators. The Challenge, in Chicago, spent millions of dollars through a “Leadership Development Initiative” to recruit and train individuals for the school councils. This idea, backed by Bill Ayers, was sent to the Board of Directors, chaired by Barack Obama.

But long before that, Klonsky, an Obama supporter and friend of Ayers (all the way back to the Students for a Democratic Society – SDS), was setting the groundwork, attempting to develop support for progressive education in the United States. Klonsky founded a maoist party in the U.S. and spent a lot of his time between 1979 and 1981, as Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPML) chairman. To attempt to garner support from Chinese leaders, he made numerous trips to China for state dinners and years later, his “Small Schools Workshop” received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Challenge headed by Obama and Ayers.

The 70s marked the beginning of several organizations: The Industrial Areas Foundation, Citizen Action, National People’s Action, PICO, DART and the Gamaliel Foundation. Citizen Action was founded by Heather Booth; another member of the Alinsky’s SDS. That group later transformed into the infamous Weather Underground. Booth’s husband was both a member of SDS and the IAF. Booth, herself, was a radical organizer and activist since the 1960s and is the co-founder and President of The Midwest Academy, which according to their website, “is a leading national training institute for the progressive movement and social change.”
The Academy, according to their website, “advances the movements for social change by teaching a strategic, rigorous, results-oriented approach to social action and organization building.”

Booth enrolled at the University of Chicago in 1963 becoming a member of the Freedom Summer Civil Rights Project and was a leader of the Progressive Student Political Committee. She is connected to another individual who had his start in the 1970s – Wade Rathke,

Rathke started working for NWRO (National Welfare Rights Organization) in Springfield, Massachusetts. According to his biography listed on his official blog, after working for NWRO, Rathke started a group in Arkansas.

That group became ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) – eventually touted as the largest organization of lower income and working families in the United States. Wade ran ACORN for 38 years and also was the founder and is the Chief Organizer of Local 100, Service Employees International Union. SEIU worked with members in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas in 1980. Lastly, Wade is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Social Policy, a quarterly magazine for activists and scholars.

Rathke proclaims on his blog “that through the hard work of hundreds of community organizers and thousands of community leaders across the country, ACORN has won landmark victories in the areas of community reinvestment, fair lending, living wages, education reform, environmental justice, and other issues.”

Education reform.

Today, SEIU Local 100, headquartered in New has been involved in organizing “public sector public workers, including school employees.” Rathke himself says he is a longtime member of the Tides Foundation, which provides services to new and existing nonprofit organizations promoting social change.

About 131 million people were reported voting by the U.S. Census Bureau in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. This number represents an increase of 5 million from 2004 with voters 18 to 24-years-old as the only age group to show a statistically significant increase in turnout, reaching 49 percent. This statistic is significant only because, when taken with many other factors, it suggests that it is possible we have an entire generation of people, possibly “grown or farmed” within the public school system, to support the kind of structure being assembled within the administration today.

At the very least, Barrack Obama arrived at exactly the right time and the right place – and was exactly the right guy, as far as folks like Ayers and Rathke and Klonsky are concerned. Timing is often everything, and this timing was a progressive celestial alignment.

Lastly, the question being asked so often is “why is the majority of the media are not focusing on major stories, such as the breaking ACORN scandal – and why are they operating with shameless bias?”

The answer may be wrapped up in the whole progressive education package, which has been pressed upon an entire generation of people. As just one example, the educational organizations started by the Annenberg Foundation have almost exclusively centered their attention on journalism and communication as they apply to politics, social sciences, healthcare issues, digital technology and the intersection of the media and public policy with these studies at various grade levels – even within our public school system. One of these organizations, Annenberg Media, has been responsible for distributing multi-media educational resources to schools throughout the nation.

The other groups started by the Foundation were: The Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California, The Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at the Eisenhower Medical Center, The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

In conclusion, I believe that somewhere in the smoke, the truth exists – that there is a direct connection between the progressive education movement, ACORN and organizations like it, and the problems we are facing today, from the collapse of the housing market to the bailouts and now, even universal healthcare. The public school system gave Obama his springboard into the “community organizing” efforts which eventually led him to the White House, but at its’ base, community organizing claims to be about providing for families and children.

Of course, then we are presented with examples like the current ACORN scandal and we are left to wonder what kind of things these groups really are organizing in our towns and cities – and what lessons our children really are learning in school.

This is precisely why it is so difficult to follow all this – there’s so much smoke, it is obscuring the view of the flames. Something is on fire, but what it is – and where it is, seems difficult to determine.

But without an environment conducive to Marxism, there can’t be activity like we are seeing now at the highest levels of government. Creating that environment in a nation like ours requires years of focused development. The forest needs to be dry, with a lot of undergrowth and dead wood – and the season needs to be dry with very little relief, to start the big wildfires. And today, dear reader, the forest, which is our society – our economy and our way of life, is very dry indeed.

And the fires have started.

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I’ve grown up my whole life in the state of Michigan, so I’ve seen firsthand what it’s like to struggle. I’ve seen others struggle and I’ve witnessed it in my own family. In the past, I’ve seen my dad become an unemployment statistic several times. Most recently, back in November. This time was the hardest (for me anyways). I was at the age now where I could fully understand the gravity of the situation. I remember my mom telling me after school and I broke down in the hallway, I knew how much it meant to my dad to be working and providing for our family and now all of a sudden he couldn’t. My immediate (selfish) thought was “What are we going to do about Christmas.”  Quickly, I realized that this Christmas was going to have to be about what I needed not necessarily about what I wanted. Christmas was scant this year, but I wasn’t disappointed. I learned a valuable lesson during this time: thankfulness. It’s a shame something like my dad losing his job had to happen for me to realize all that God has blessed my family with. Not once was my family without food or shelter. God provided for our needs and he has continued to provide for them.

Since that time my dad has started his own DVD business. I’ve learned from my dad what it means to work hard and never give up.  I’ve watched my dad work his tail off to get new customers and stay up until 4am working on a project. Anyone who has started a business knows that the first year is the most difficult, and that has proven to be true for my family. He had a part time job selling power chairs and scooters, but that fell through this summer because of the changes going on with Medicare. My dad continues to search for a part time job until he is confident enough that his business alone can bring in sufficient money for my family.

My mother is doing her share as well, in addition to teaching during the school year she started a part time job doing data entry. She’s been working 3x a week this summer, and will continue to do so during the school year, going from teaching all day to working about 5hrs at night. Life hasn’t been easy, but we were never promised it would be. Not by God, or by government. God tells us life won’t be easy, but with His help we will make it through. Neither the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence promises the American person success or complete happiness. We may pursue happiness, but whether we end up happy or not depends on how badly we want that happiness.

I’ve attended a private Christian school and a Baptist church my whole life, so I’ve been taught what is right and what is wrong. I’ve been taught to have good morals and obey authority. But I learned a lesson from a teacher this past year that I hope I never forget. The lesson is: regardless of your great upbringing, family background, and the fact that you call yourself a Christian does not mean you are exempt from failure. Whether it be failing God, family or yourself. All of us are liable to becoming the scum of the earth no matter what our history or how wise we think we are. That is why I feel it important as a young person to nail down what I believe and WHO I believe in, God. Every night I pray that I stay on the right path, not just the right spiritual path, but the right path for my life.

Since I am still in high school my life experiences are limited. And it has become increasingly apparent to me that I’m one of the few teens in this country who has a passion for what is happening. I have found it difficult to relate to teens my age, since none of them know what is going on, nor do they care when I try to explain it to them. I usually get a response like “Haha, Obama is the Antichrist” or “Obama’s so stupid”. That is not the point I’m trying to get across when I tell my peers that our freedoms are being taken away from us! I believe I get these responses because first of all, they probably don’t understand what “cap and trade” is or how big of a deal “nationalized healthcare is,” and secondly, they don’t think it will have any direct effect on them and a lot of kids haven’t read important documents like the Constitution so they won’t know when freedoms are being taken away. When talking to my peers I’m not asking them to have the sudden urge to run for political office or sit around watching the news all day. I simply wish they would take the time to educate themselves instead of sitting in front of the computer or Xbox all day.

I also find it hard to relate to some classmates during the school year. I don’t know what I have in me that has wired me so differently, but I cannot for the life of me get some of my classmates to understand why I study, do homework, and actually read the books being assigned to us. Do I think myself any better than these people because I do my homework? Absolutely not. But these are the people I fear will be sitting on the side of the road one day if they don’t get their act together. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve seen what great results come from working hard. I wasn’t blessed with a 4.0 brain but I was blessed with a work-ethic. And I think work ethic will get you farther in life than a 4.0 brain or an Ivy League degree. I’m not the kid who sits in class and doesn’t take notes, doesn’t study, then takes the test and gets an A. I’m the kid that sits in class, takes way to many notes, studies her butt of and gets the excitement of seeing that red A on her paper. For me that is more rewarding than the first kid I mentioned. I never have been nor do I want to be who person that gets everything handed to her. I enjoy working hard because I enjoy seeing it pay off.

I believe the above explanations help shape why I’m a conservative. My values, traditions and outlook on life have helped me realize what it is that makes me a conservative versus being a liberal. Being a conservative or liberal is a choice YOU have to make for yourself-you aren’t told what you are-you decide. I think that is something the youth in America is struggling with. In todays society it’s become more and more popular to be a liberal. Suddenly having morals is “uncool”. It’s cooler now to follow the crowd, and become someone you are not. That is why it is imperative that you find out who you are, who you believe in, what you believe in and why, and at a young age.

I’m a conservative because I believe in freedom, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, the power of the individual, freedom, the free market, small government and most of all RESPONSIBILITY. As a conservative I understand what a tremendous blessing it is to be living in the United States, but I also realize the huge responsibility that comes along with it. The Bill of Rights is where we find things that are considered “rights.” But the 10th Amendment reminds me that we don’t all have a right to everything, like healthcare. Healthcare is a responsibility, just like owning a car or house. I believe competition is good for the country and for the American. I’m a soccer player so I’ve got that competitive drive in me and I think if Americans get used to just being handed things our country will become less competitive making more people lazy, which will harm this country greatly.

As a teen what scares me the most about the direction our country is headed is when I hear men well into their 60s-70s say things like “Well, I’m just glad I’m old and won’t be here much longer. It’s the younger ones I fear for. They’ve got a lot coming.” I see where this country is going and I realize that the youths future is being decided for them and that should scare every teenager. I know history and I know “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” -Edmund Burke. So my message to teens is: KNOW YOUR HISTORY. Educate yourself, learn about the Founding Fathers, learn about paths other countries have gone down and how it’s failed them. Learn about the Constitution. That way you’ll be able to see when someone is taking something away from you that they don’t have the right to do. I’ve got my whole life ahead of me but I’d like to have the ability to make my own decisions in the future.

I’m 17, I’m proud to call myself a conservative, but even more proud call myself an American!

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Today is yet another sad day for our public education program, our entitlement mentality in America, and our media.  Tom Brokaw, a new member of the White House fellows board, is pushing the idea that paying children to attend school is brilliant.

If I were to take some of the statistics used in Glenn Beck’s latest book “Common Sense” I would see a very stark picture of our education system.  Glenn states the following:

• • Only 34.6% of kids in Baltimore city’s public school system received a high school diploma in 2004;
  • The Indianapolis public school system handed out diplomas to just 30.5% of students;
  • Detroit’s public school system struggled to have 25% of its students qualify for a high school diploma;
  • 45.2% of New York City public school kids graduated with a high school diploma.

What about our nation’s capital?

On-time high school graduation rates for the D.C. area are not improving according to an Education Week study released Tuesday.

[In actuality the On-Time High School Graduation Rate is Declining]

Fewer than 50 percent of high school students graduated within four years from D.C.’s public schools in 2006, according to the study. That’s down almost 9 percent from 2005, the Washington Post reported. The figures didn’t include public charter schools.

The true rate wasn’t provided for in the biased NBC article however, it still says a lot if liberal media outlets can’t spin the story to a better statistic of over 50%.

What about our education system as a whole when compared with those of other countries?

In a 2003 study conducted by UNICEF that took the averages from five different international education studies, the researchers ranked the United States No. 18 out of 24 nations in terms of the relative effectiveness of its educational system.

So excuse me if I’m just a tad skeptical about the latest idea coming out of Washington, D.C.; the incentive to pay children to go to school.  A couple months ago we were paying young women to avoid pregnancy and now we are planning on paying children to get an education!

A July 1 “NBC Nightly News” segment detailed a new use of tax payer dollars in one of the worst performing, financially struggling school systems in the country – the Washington, D.C. public school system. They are paying school children with taxpayer funds, part of a social experiment to improve school participation at the middle school level.

“Keeping the exuberant sixth graders of Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson in line on a sunny Friday is a challenge for principal Brian Betts,” former “Nightly News” anchor-turned-correspondent Tom Brokaw explained. “But this is not an assembly, it’s payday. It’s called Capital Gains – paying students for good grades, behavior and attendance, part of the massive restructuring of the D.C. schools by a 38-year-old Korean-American woman, who as chancellor, wants to transform what is by many measures the worst-performing public school system in the U.S.”

Brokaw credited Washington, D.C. Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee for being instrumental in making this program a reality. He explained the Capital Gains program was the invention of a Harvard think tank that came with a $1.35-million price tag for taxpayers.

I am very disappointed that this idea was hatched by Michelle Rhee who, beforehand was doing an excellent job at changing the DC public school system.  She has taken tenure away from teachers, fired others, and has increased salaries among other measures I personally agree with.  However, this idea that America should pay children for an education is despicable and will only cause worse standards among our graduating youth.

My thought on paying children is very similar to the concept of the children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”  When you give the mouse a cookie, he continues to stick around asking for more and more.  He got away with the cookie, so why not ask for more goodies and entitlements until the people doling out the cookies and additional perks are broke, tired, and annoyed?  This is the enabling concept.  If children do not learn maybe we should be looking at the teachers, the parents, or the curriculum!  Why should we give incentives for children to just sit in a classroom?  What happens when that incentive is gone and a college that admits them does not continue handing out “cookies?”  My guess: they will be left with the mentality of a drug addict.  Students will now be addicted to money and benefits and will become lazy and complacent if they do not receive their immediate gratification or, in this incident, cash.  They will become spoiled and even more uneducated.

What good does paying a child to attend school do, if the curriculum and the teaching is so incredibly horrid?  Teachers are not even giving an accurate representation of American history let alone capable of making children smarter via remuneration.  What happened to the days when it was fun to go to school?  When teachers were interesting and engaging?  Where free thought and opinion was allowed and not dissuaded?  If we cannot teach our youth and encourage their brains, imagination, dreams, and knowledge to grow – then what good will that really do us in the end?

Meanwhile India, China, Russia, and various other countries are way ahead of us on the learning curve.  Their children are engineers, scientists, doctors, and the like.  America worries too much about feelings and emotions, and pushing their political agendas on students rather than caring about truth, facts, logic, and wisdom.

I was fortunate to have teachers who believed in free thought and not indoctrination.  I was lucky enough to look forward to school, taking electives that fired my synapses, like English Sarcasm 101 (no joke); Graphic Arts, Call of the Wild [an English course where you went camping, dissected poetry/short stories, and studied human nature], etc.  I wasn’t stuck in a government mandated curriculum that didn’t engage my brain or hindered my thoughts to the point where I could only think inside a small box.  Unfortunately, that same public school that I attended has changed for the worse (and that was since 1999).

As they say when students receive poor grades as a whole – it’s more a sign of the teacher than those being taught.  I could say the same regarding graduation and attendance rates – it’s more a sign of the government agenda than those being taught.

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After sitting through newscasts leading up to the commencement and watching protesters get arrested who attempted to get onto campus grounds over the weekend and earlier last week, I came to the conclusion that people willingly toss principles aside to jump on a band wagon and in turn become lemmings of a cause or particular individual.

It’s incredibly sad and disheartening that a college that is rooted in Catholic principles could throw away the very tenants on which the school stands.  The invitation of the most pro-abortion candidate, who has gone so far as to vote for infanticide, is probably one of the most despicable slaps in the face yet, to the Catholic faith.

I’m not Catholic and don’t feel it completely right to get into detail or opine on the matter, however, I can see where Catholics and ardent pro-life advocates would feel heart broken and devastated that  a prestigious Catholic school would stoop to this level when they could have avoided the controversy all together.  I personally feel that if Obama were more moderate on the issue, which his record shows anything but, we would not be having this outcry.

Prominent Catholic priests (Father Norman Weslin), politicians (Keyes), and abortion figures (Norma McCorvey a.k.a Jane Roe), all came to protest and support life.  They protested in a peaceful manner only to be carted away by police throughout the weekend.  Over 40 people were arrested and both Father Weslin and Alan Keyes were arrested twice.  Those who were incarcerated with Keyes and Father Weslin said it was the best moment of their lives – they were able to hear two of the most principled national figures speak on the issue in the holding cell – when bail was made for the individuals, nobody wanted to leave – they wanted to continue listening…

I spoke with some moderate friends of mine (pro-choice) on Sunday in regards to the speech and all were in agreement, to my chagrin, that Notre Dame was in the wrong, mainly because it professes to be a religious school and acted against its founding principles.

I watched the speech that Obama gave and listened to his words.  If I were a graduating senior and that was the speech given at my commencement, although I didn’t pay money for it, I would at least attempt to get a refund for the 45 minutes of my life that were wasted listening to another campaign speech, pontifications about public policy, and the story of Obama’s life.  It’s my understanding that commencement speeches are directed at a graduating class, at their future, and what awaits them.  Obama’s speech started out in that manner, but quickly turned into his usual hollow rhetoric.

The most poignant and heart wrenching part of his speech came during his discussion of abortion.  It was not what Obama said regarding the issue, but rather a baby in the audience crying the moment he began talking about abortion rights – it even made him stumble and pause when he began his talking points.  The baby, over everything else in that convocation center, could be heard.  It was something that only God could enact; that baby’s cry was the single best argument against abortion.

That moment, of all others, made my otherwise waste of listening to his empty lecture, all the more worth it.  Sure there were protesters and hecklers who were thrown out during his speech and who also made him stumble, but there is nothing as mind changing as the most innocent among us.

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Pro-life protesters rallied at the Notre Dame campus for Obama’s upcoming commencement speech to show their disagreement with the Catholic university’s decision allowing Barack Obama, the most radical pro-abortion politician to date, to speak at their institution.

Former Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes and 21 other protesters were arrested this morning when they refused to leave the Notre Dame campus during a protest of President Obama’s upcoming commencement address there, authorities said.

Keyes and the others were arrested on trespassing charges when they refused to leave campus, a university spokesman said. All 22 were being held in the St. Joseph County Jail on misdemeanor criminal trespass charges, in lieu of $250 bond each, said St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Redman.

Just one question:  If there were 20 some odd people marching in support of Obama’s speech, would they have also received fines for trespassing?  One would hope it would go both ways…/yea right!

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President Obama voted in the Senate to provide additional funding for a program targeted for elimination by his budget that provides states a federal subsidy to offset the costs of jailing illegal immigrants.

Killing the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAPP) would save $400 million, according to Obama’s budget for fiscal 2010 released Thursday. It’s one of the largest non-defense discretionary cuts proposed in the president’s budget.

Think along with me here folks… Each illegal immigrants, studies show, cost Americans roughly $1 million dollars.  Democrats are trying to push through a new Amnesty bill for nearly 12 million illegal immigrants.  $1M x $12M = More than $400M! The logic of Democrats make absolutely no sense at all.  They never plan ahead or measure the possible long-term repercussions of their actions.  Obama sees money that can be cut now – so he doesn’t, or can’t, look beyond that.  This action will actually cost us more money in the end.

Obama cuts abstinence-only programsout of the budget as well.  Many argue that abstinence is not realistic in today’s society, but that has become more the norm due to Hollyweird and others advocating sex on a regular basis. Sex sells and sex is becoming the norm.  My personal belief is to teach both and emphasize that the only sure fire way to avoid getting pregnant and contracting an STD is abstinence.  What doesn’t make sense to me is the budget cut for this.

The White House wants to get out of the business of telling youngsters “Just Say No to Sex.”

President Obama is putting his own ideological stamp on federal spending in his proposed 2010 budget by cutting cash for abstinence-only sex ed programs.

He’s taken a scalpel to a pair of $100 million George W. Bush-era programs that exclusively preached abstinence. Obama is replacing them with $110 million for comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention.

“It’s about time that evidence-based management – and sanity – return to family planning programs,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).

Think along with me again.  The more young unwed mothers you create, the more welfare recipients you create. The more welfare recipients you create, the more loyal Democrat voters you create.

Thus, Democrat sex-education must always focus on getting teenagers to have more sex, not less.

Another important point to note – see what I bolded above?  How is this a tax cut?  If he is replacing the PAIR of programs that each equaled $100 million with only one program worth $110 million then it is, but the writing is very vague and misleading here… the question is if he is going to replace both programs with two other programs worth more money than the previous ones…

A picture of what his budget cuts really look like in the scheme of things:

Dumping the say-no-to-sex programs were a tiny fraction of the $17 billion Team Obama trimmed from its $3.4 trillion funding budget request.Overall, New Yorkers say Obama’s budget helps the city – but raised several red flags.

One is Obama’s plan to cut $600 million from the federal terrorism insurance program.

Maybe that’s what New Yorkers should be focusing on – not sex! Wake up!

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From Fox News:

Student Wins Suit After Teacher Says Creationism ‘Superstitious Nonsense’

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge ruled that a public high school history teacher violated the First Amendment when he called creationism “superstitious nonsense” during a classroom lecture.

U.S. District Judge James Selna issued the ruling Friday after a 16-month legal battle between student Chad Farnan and his former teacher, James Corbett.

Farnan sued in U.S. District Court in 2007, alleging that Corbett violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment by making repeated comments in class that were hostile to Christian beliefs.

The lawsuit cited more than 20 statements made by Corbett during one day of class, all of which were recorded by Farnan, to support allegations of a broader teaching method that “favors irreligion over religion” and made Christian students feel uncomfortable.

During the course of the litigation, the judge found that most of the statements cited in the court papers did not violate the First Amendment because they did not refer directly to religion or were appropriate in the context of the classroom lecture.

But Selna ruled Friday that one comment, where Corbett referred to creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense,” did violate Farnan’s constitutional rights.

Finally, a win for a Christian; we actually do have rights!  It works both ways, and for once, it worked in favor for those of us who believe.  I hope this sends a message that Christians are not going to lie down and take it any more.

Full Article

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Condi talks “torture” with typical idealistic, indoctrinated ivy league students…

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This is just too disturbing and it’s a horrible sign of what is going on at universities across the nation.

The irony is that by enforcing policies that create conformists, shape people’s beliefs, and attempt to change values, opinions, and ideologies are, in fact, oppressive by their very nature and hinder freedom. Conservatives have always championed individual rights but get labeled by liberals as dittoheads or conformists. This labeling is amusing since liberals tend to require strength in numbers for their agendas and force those opinions and issues on others through indoctrination and the media. Liberal’s policies struggle to hold up to scrutiny and hard facts. Group think is common amongst liberals and it’s incredibly obvious when you look at party divides. Right leaning people will tend to argue with one another because they champion individualism so much. They don’t all have the same opinions or ideas and it sometimes causes splits inside the overarching party as we have seen lately. This does not happen as often with Liberals who conform and champion the entire group and don’t rock the boat.

By creating agendas that label specific groups by race, religion, and sexuality – they are exacerbating racism and bigotry. I hope that one day people will wake up and realize that separating out groups and tagging people is, by its very nature, racist and prejudiced. To get past any divides that may still exist, we need to treat people as individuals, not groups.

Visit www.THEFIRE.org for more information on universities across the country and see where yours ranks.

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Obama’s brown-shirts…

Calling on Americans to volunteer, President Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college.

“We need your service, right now, in this moment in history. … I’m asking you to stand up and play your part,” said Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago. “I’m asking you to help change history’s course.”

Joining Obama was Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has been battling brain cancer. Kennedy championed the legislation with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and the bill was named in honor of the Massachusetts Democrat.

Kennedy told the audience that included former President Bill Clinton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former first lady Rosalyn Carter that Obama’s efforts echoed that of his late brother, former President John F. Kennedy.

“Today, another young president has challenged another generation to give back to their nation,” Kennedy said, citing his brother’s advocacy of the Peace Corps.

The service law expands ways for students and seniors to earn money for college through their volunteer work. It aims to foster and fulfill people’s desire to make a difference, such as by mentoring children, cleaning up parks or buildings and weatherizing homes for the poor.

Bolstering voluntary public service programs has been a priority of Obama, who credits his work as a community organizer in his early 20s for giving him direction in life. The president cited his work in Chicago as an example of how one person can make a difference.

“All that’s required on your part is a willingness to make a difference,” Obama said. “That’s the beauty of it; everybody can do it.”

Anybody else see this as a means to an end?  A goal to indoctrinate more youth for political gain?  Follow the money – if you get money from the government you will vote that way – trust me.

I can think of several other occasions in history where this was passed, based on some philanthropic, feel-good premise, only to wind up being utilized for ideological purposes… that didn’t end well.

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