Throughout the blogsphere and all over the internet, people have been tearing Glenn Beck down for an article in USA Weekend in which he seems to say he believes in global warming.  As far as I know, not one of these presumed bloggers tried to contact Glenn Beck or one of his producers to get to the bottom of the rumors.  Truth be known, were any of these supposed bloggers actual Glenn Beck listeners, they would have known what Glenn Beck’s position is on Global Warming and wouldn’t have fallen prey to the Lame Stream Media’s covert attack on Beck.

During a commercial break on his show today, Stu and Glenn discussed the internet rumors on mic so that the Insiders could hear. Below is the video of the discussion.

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The recent Supreme Court decision to allow corporations unlimited spending on political ads was the right decision in the case. It is not something we should be cheering for in the larger sense of what it means for American politics.
 
One good thing about this decision is that it levels the playing field by granting corporations the same advantages Unions and other organizations have when it comes to political campaigns and support of candidates. Another positive twist is that the level of awareness and debate could increase significantly; specifically by exposing a segment of the population who would otherwise be ill-informed in general about politics because what they know is only what they see in TV advertisements in their respective markets.
 
But this case is an isolated one, which does not address the real problem…the fact that too much money in politics not only adds to corruption but also makes it virtually impossible for the average citizen to campaign and compete in elections.
 
Many people on the right argue that this is about the First Amendment right to free speech. I don’t agree with that. The corporation is not an individual that can participate in rights. For example, does a corporation (remember it’s a piece of paper) have the right to keep and bear arms? How about the right to a speedy trial, why would it need that if it is never put in a jail cell? How about the right to the pursuit of happiness? Is a piece of paper capable of being happy or sad?
 
We have structures in place to allow individuals of a political opinion or ideology to band together and fund the propagation of their ideas. That is a healthy way of getting the opinion of the people into the public view. But I doubt very seriously that Nike will be concerned with individual tax rates if they can find a politician who will grant them special privileges for their business.
 
I think most Americans would agree that special interests, corporations and lobbyists already have way too much influence over politics and the legislative process. The Court’s decision opens the floodgates for corporations to increase their influence without limits. How does that serve the people? How does that help the people make their voices heard? Will this ratchet up the polarization of debate, further fueling the divisions in the electorate?
 
Insurance companies are corporations. How on earth will letting them spend freely on politics increase competition in the marketplace allowing us to negotiate lower prices and policies that fit our lifestyles and budgets. What about multinational corporations, which have no allegiance to America but will now have the opportunity to influence our political process through unlimited funding to promote ideologies that serve their particular interests? Think about the potential hazards this could lead to…special interests on steroids. Corporations will be able to fund the people who are friendly to them regardless of what it means to this society and our freedom.
 
The case I would like the Supreme Court to decide is if the current campaign finance laws are constitutional and actually serve the people. I would argue that we need significant limits on campaign financing activities. We should have a system that encourages average individuals to serve in public office. Today we have a system that encourages wealthy lawyers who can rarely avoid scandal as their power and influence is auctioned to the highest bidder(s).
 
In short, the money should be funneled through individuals, have low limits and be tax-free. Corporate profits should be directed to equity growth, dividends and R&D; allowing individual investors the opportunity to participate in the wealth generating machine that corporations are capable of being.

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A few days ago, as I sat at the computer trying to get a handle on the latest political pulse of America, I had a random thought and it gave me some real hope for taking our great Country back again. Often times random thoughts and feelings take a back burner to life, but for some reason I decided to write this one down. Happily, this random thought has been able to help a few good patriots and I sincerely hope it will continue to do so. Recently, several email exchanges came to my attention and I thought perhaps my random thought may help some of these patriots who are feeling bummed, scared, angry, etc.  So here goes my two cents for what it’s worth.

I think the Massachusetts Special Election taking place today, would have been very different in the recent past, mainly because it would not be receiving the attention it is getting today. The American People are finally doing their job, yes they are doing their job as citizens today much more so than yesterday. Yesterday, we the people would not have known about this special election…media would have perhaps mentioned it briefly, however it really would not have been thought about much by us folks, after all it’s not in “our State” what can we do???? We probably would have sat back and watched, not taking the bold steps we’re taking to help.  I see this as a true awaking for a lot of Americans. I have several liberal friends in the Boston area, and I personally sent emails to them asking for help with saving our Republic. I would have never done that a couple of years ago.  I am no longer a politically correct person, too much is on the line.

As Benjamin Franklin said so long ago in response to the question by Mrs. Powell in 1787,

“Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded,
“A republic, if you can keep it.”

Perhaps the American people truly want to keep the Republic our Founding Fathers gave us, today much more so than yesterday!

Personally, I am thanking God for awakening the people. We have reached a turning point yet again in our great history.

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…the Hondurans, Cubans, and Venezuelans:

As you most know, my family escaped from Cuba in 1967 to escape a communist regime and start a new life in freedom in the United States. Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans were among the first Latinos to thrive in the United States. Today we see Latinos of all walks of life from all different countries from all over Latin America. Why should we as Americans care? Simple….Latinos number in the millions here in the United States and invest billions of dollars in our economy. Also, and most importantly; we have Latinos participating in policies in the U.S. government that shape our nation. That translates into millions of votes and citizens involved in shaping our society.

We must watch our neighbors. For example, Venezuela and Hugo Chavez who constantly try to provoke the United States. Honduras with Zelaya who wanted to change the Honduran Constitution so he could rule indefinitely so, Micheletti took power. What is our government doing? Turning a blind eye and not supporting Micheletti and continuing to allow Chavez to disrespect, berrate and bully the United States.

Another case in point…look what happened in Cuba 1961. The Bay of Pigs was a total disaster and fiasco of the Kennedy administration turning his back on Cuba. The result? Thousands of Cubans murdered by a weak Cuban airforce thanks to John F. Kennedy leaving them out alone to dry after promising to back up those valiant freedom fighters and then going back on that promise…thereby missing our window of opportunity to remove Castro from power without threat from the Russians. Cuba is only 90 miles away! We must worry because many people are coming from these places and that means they are also bringing their political ideas. The White House now has a site in Spanish to indoctrinate and bring in Latinos. We must get these important voters on our side…the side of freedom. Why? Because they come to this country,then become American citizens who vote and shape our agendas and have American children who are the future of this country and it won’t be long before we have the first Latino president. And God help us that his or her policy isn’t the same as Barrack Hussein Obama. We must attract these minority groups who, just like us, share in family values and have high morals but, bought the promise of immigration reform which will never be delivered. How does the White House respond? They shut up the Latino minority group by buying us off with Sonya Sotomayor no less! Wake up America! Sotomayor is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants with a leftist agenda who sees the Constitution as something to be changed and amended. So me must care about the Latino group and care about what is going on in our backyard to avoid anymore “change” from what our Founding Fathers intended.

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We Conservatives are virtually all angry that Congress doesn’t give a rat’s behind about us these days. The House passed their version of the unconstitutional health care bill and are enjoying gloating about it before our angry, red faces. We would all like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Louise ‘Slaughter-of-the-innocents,’  Charlie ‘Don’t-pay-my-taxes’ Rangel, Dingell, and not to mention Obama, to go away; or worse.

We know, the Republicans did their best to oppose this 2000-page behemoth but, they don’t get that passing ANY bill like this is still unconstitutional. The fact that we are out-numbered by the liberal socialists in Congress causes a feeling of helplessness among most of us. We’re itching to do something, but we don’t know what that is. Some of us are ready to “lock and load” and start “The Revolution.”  I understand completely! But the government hasn’t sent in the troops yet to collect our weapons as in the battle of Lexington and Concord. Hopefully, that day never comes. We are also scattered all over the country. It’s not like we are all located in one town where we are able to meet and devise a plan of action. We’re looking for that “one” leader who understands what life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness actually mean; knows the Founding Fathers; and will rise up so we can follow him or her—and patience is not one our virtues lately.

Now take a deep breath! After the anger passes and common sense and logic begin to kick in, there are still some things left we can do:

- Call your Senators and tell them that if they pass this or any unconstitutional health care bill and it is signed into law, you’re not going to follow it or comply with it. It is “unlawful” and they don’t have to power to pass such a law. The U.S. Government has been operating unconstitutionally for a hundred years and it’s time they stop! If you need help, go this site DownSizeDC.org where you’ll find all the tools you need to communicate to your senators and representatives.

- Boycott all companies who pander to liberal socialists and give them lots of lobbying money and bribes for their campaigns, and for persuading them to write unconstitutional laws. Check with OpenSecrets for information on who’s lobbying whom and how much money is being given to whom.

- Continue to participate in the protests whether that be with the Tea Party movement, Town Hall meetings, 9/12 Project, or just getting together with a large group to protest at your state capitol.

- Educate yourself on the Constitution and the Federalist Papers (which illustrate the original intent of the Founders in drafting the Constitution.) Don’t be ignorant when you’re faced with a Congressman or woman who asks you why the government’s health care plan is unconstitutional, and you stand there and say, “You are taking our rights away!”. They’re going to ask you “what rights are we taking away?” and if you can’t answer, how do you think that makes you look?  The prophet Isaiah wrote: “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” The left thinks you are a bunch of backwoods hicks in fly-over country clinging to your bibles and guns. Show them they are dead wrong!

- Continue to network with patriots on Twitter or other social networks.

- Don’t give up and never give in! We still have the elections of 2010!

Remember, we must give all men and women a chance to make things right first. When we’ve exhausted all possibilities, then be at inner peace with yourself that you’ve done everything you could do. Then wait patiently and see what happens next.

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The time no longer draws nigh… the time is upon us.  The future of our Country teeters on the fulcrum of freedom.

We’ve been going to Tea Parties, Townhalls, and Council meetings.  We’ve been writing on our blogs and venting our frustrations in blasts of 140 characters or less.  We’ve been calling, writing, faxing our Congress; talking to neighbors, friends, and family.  We’ve been protesting outside media outlets, local, State, and Federal offices.  We’ve been begging for our elected leaders to hear us.  And now, one of those leaders has not only heard us but has answered us by opening the door to the House and inviting us to enter.  If we don’t accept her invitation and cross that threshold we deserve exactly what we will get: an ObamaNation.

Few members of Congress have taken our pleas seriously.  We have been called tea baggers, astroturfers, radicals, and extremists.  If loving my Country and the freedom she stands for means I am all of those of things then so be it.  I wear those epithets proudly.

Our Country is being usurped and unless we take our stand now, she could be irretrievably abducted.  Michele Bachmann is right.  Speaker Pelosi’s Health Care bill is the crown jewel of socialism.  Progressives, aka Repressives, have always known that to take over a people it has to be done in the dark of night while they lay sleeping.  For too long Americans have slumbered in their freedom.  We became an apathetic people not wishing to see the light that was being snuffed out of our Constitution.  Pelosi’s Health Care bill has little to do with actual health and everything to do with socialism and the corruption it is founded on.  And this coming week, our freedom will slip from our grasp and onto the floor of the House of Representatives if we let it.

We can stop this.  But it will take more than phone calls, letter, and faxes.  We have to show up on the steps of the Capitol on Thursday, November 5, 2009 and storm thru the hallways of our elected officials.  We have to knock them from their self-erected thrones and show them we say what we mean and mean what we say.  Unless we heed Rep. Bachmann’s call to action then the freedoms we grew up with, the freedoms our fathers, grandfathers, and Founding Fathers fought hard to attain for us will be gone.  And unless we heed her call, we deserve what we get.

The time is now.  If we put this off because of our responsibilities at home, then we will lose the liberty to attend to those responsibilities.  We will no longer be working to provide for our families.  We will no longer be striving for our own goals.  We will no longer be free to follow the path of self-determination.  If we don’t heed the call, everything from here on out we will be doing for our government; not our Country… our government- and all the connotations that surround a socialized institution.

This is it.  This is our moment in time.  This is that point in history for which we will be judged by our children, grandchildren, and all who follow.  We can turn this bloodless revolution around and save our country now or we can risk time and wait until it is too late to save it peacefully.

I will be joining Rep. Bachmann on the Capitol steps and I will march thru the hallways of Congress.  I will also be taking copies of the 5 Pledges for each member of Congress to sign.  For those who refuse to sign, I will publish their names and their comments.

I will not let this country’s cornerstone – The Constitution – be destroyed by corrupt men and women whose only goal is greed and power over the very people who put them in office.  If you don’t stand up now, while standing up is still possible, when will you?

If you can’t go but these words ring true to you, please link to this article on every site you are a member of and email the link to every list you are on and to every person you know.  Spread the word!

UPDATE-11/02/09

If you are or you know of a group or site organizing  a trip to  Stand Up With Bachmann, please tell us in the comment section and provide a link if you have one.  Let everyone know!

UPDATE-11/01/09

In an effort to rally as many people as possible to Stand Up With Bachmann, members of several sites are organizing groups and getting the word out to be in DC on Nov 05.  If you or your site plans on attending the the rally please complete the form provided here and let us know who you are and what help you may need. Thanks!

UPDATE-10/31/09

Per Rep. Bachmann’s site:

Make a House Call on Congress on November 5th and Stop the Government Take Over of Health Care!

November 5th, 2009

Democrat leadership in the House wants to pass a government run health care bill before Veteran’s Day, and it’s up to us to make sure this prescription for socialized medicine doesn’t pass.

If you can come to Washington to look your Member straight in the eye and tell them to keep their hands off your heatlh care, do it. If you can’t make it to Washington, go to your Member’s district office. And, if you can’t do that at least call and email.

Also, Americans for Prosperity is organizing a House Call to legislators district offices on Thursday at noon, and I encourage you to check out their website at www.americansforprosperity.org to see how you can take part in their efforts if you can’t make it to D.C.

Thanks so much and let’s keep up the fight!

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Breaking: full details to come on SOCN and Jolly Rogers

As Glenn Beck reported on Fox yesterday Robert F. Bauer, Anita Dunn’s husband, has been offered the position of Chief White House Counsel.  What hasn’t been reported is that the firm, of which he is a partner; Perkins-Coie,  not only is defending Osama Bin Laden’s driver but is also responsible for the ethics complaints filed against Sarah Palin’s Alaska Defense Fund.  Of course, the charges were completely bogus but the firm tried to do as much damage as possible by bringing them.

More details and analysis are forthcoming Jolly Rogers.

UPDATE: Analysis

September 24, 2009

reprinted in part from Jolly Rogers for full article go here

Who is Bauer? In addition to being the alleged source of Obama’s decision to forgo general election spending limits, he was chief counsel to Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Bauer was also counsel to Bill Bradley’s failed run for the presidency and is the current chairman of the Political Law Group at the Washington Firm of Perkins Coie LLP.

And of course Perkins Coie is known for the pro bono defense of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, aka Saqr al-Jedawi, Osama Bin Laden’s former chauffeur and good buddy of Nasser Al-Bahri who was linked to the bombing of the American Destroyer U.S.S. Cole. The case, which the law group brought to the Supreme Court: Salim Ahmed Hamdan versus Donald H. Rumsfeld, et al. With charges dropped as unconstitutional, Hamdan was held as an enemy combatant and brought up on new charges July 21, 2008. He was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment, but had already served five. He was cleared of terrorism and conspiracy charges and transferred to Yemen where he was released January 8, 2009.

That isn’t the end of the strange coincidences involving Bauer and Perkins Coie. This law group hasn’t only been involved in backing folks like Hamdan (which set the course for the whole question of Guantanamo Bay detainees, the War on Terror and military commissions versus civil trials, etc.), but they’ve been involved in American politics – deeply.

Perkins Coie is the group responsible for boosting the intensity of one of the most persistent ethics attacks against former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

In an e-mail dated July 14, 2009 Kim Chatman, a blogger in Alaska, filed an ethics complaint against Sarah Palin, making the allegation that the governor established a trust fund for the purpose of soliciting donations from members of the public. The original report on this complaint was published in the Anchorage Daily News. Chatman was a co-plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Palin and filed a complaint regarding Palin’s use of per-diem monies. In all, Chatman leveled

The Alaska Personnel Board asked Perkins Coie to review the complaint. Their nine- page report to the Alaska Personnel Board found essentially nothing, but combined with the pressure of 17 other complaints against the Governor and former candidate for Vice President, may have contributed to her finally leaving office. This complaint was number 13 in that long list.

Perkins Coie has offices in Anchorage, Beijing, Bellevue, Boise, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Madison, Melo Park, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai and of course, Washington, D.C.

But it’s the firm’s experience that makes it most interesting. Listed on its’ website are the areas which it excels at. These include Industry, clean-tech, communications, e-commerce, electronic financial services, energy, energy commercial transactions and project finance, energy litigation, energy project permitting and development, energy regulations and policy, forest products, franchising and distribution, hotels and leisure, interactive entertainment, life sciences, mining, renewable energy, retail and consumer products, semiconductor, senior housing and winery and vineyard.

So, knowing that, we can understand why there is an office in Anchorage, Alaska, and we could understand in a basic sense why the Personnel Board may have asked that firm to review the complaint and offer their opinion – after all, they have a big office there in Anchorage. But isn’t it strange coincidence that the very firm they ask to offer a review is so deeply involved in alternative energy concerns, and has made such a big mark by going up against Donald Rumsfeld, allowing a scumbag like Hamdan to walk – and in that single stroke, producing the firestorm of legal problems that Guantanamo creates. One might just have to wonder who is benefiting from this? More lawyers? And who benefits from the quick passage of Health Care Reform without addressing tort reform?

More lawyers.

And who benefits from taking Sarah Palin out of the game – people like Bauer and people like Obama – more lawyers. Why Perkins Coie? What do they have to gain? Well, they’re not just lovers of Guantanamo detainees. Perrkins Coie is connected to Boeing, Google, Nintendo, Microsoft, Craigslist, AT&T, Western Urban Water Coalition, Dragonslayers (wildfire mitigators) and something called America Votes.

America Votes claims to be the largest grassroots voter mobilization effort in the country. Its’ website has the following on the home page: “America Votes is the centerpiece of a permanent progressive campaign infrastructure nationally and in the states. America Votes and our coalition partners, coordinate independent electoral activity, share innovative strategies and resources, maximize electoral impact and build lasting capacity.

If you’re unsure what that really means, you can get a better explanation from the column on the right of the page. The organization, which is connected to Perkins Coie, is designed to improve “progressives’ ability to succeed in the long term.” The site explains that this effort “is directly linked to the work we do today to build the infrastructure in the states.”

The question I have is “what is the real infrastructure being built and how much of this really has the specific aims of destroying the country regardless of who gets in the way?” And the more obvious this becomes – the more of this structure is uncovered, the faster everything will change. And it won’t be Obama’s “change.” All that will be finished.

Because I think they counted Sarah Palin out too early. She’ll be coming back swinging along with an enraged public.

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Hardin, Montana has definitely seen some hard times the past few years. Two Rivers Authority is Hardin’s economic development branch. Building a detention center was supposed to help Hardin during it’s rough economic times. However, when the jail was completed in 2007, Montana no longer had the need for more prison space. Therefore, the Two Rivers Detention Center has sat empty for two years and the bonds used to pay for the jail have been in default since May 2008.

With foreclosure of the land and facility looming, Hardin – a struggling town of 3500, first came to national attention when, in its desperation to fill the jail,  announced they were willing to take Guantanamo detainees. Unfortunately for the town, Congress voted not to fund the $80 million in the President’s plan to close Guantanamo. Thereby, leaving Hardin with a still empty jail.  Enter, American Private Police Force Organization, Inc. (APF).

APF swooped into Hardin and made them an offer too good to refuse.   Most private security firms who manage corrections facilities, receive money from the City, County, or State to administer the facility.   Not so for APF.  ‘Captain’ Michael Hilton, the company’s lead public figure and Greg Smith, then Two Rivers Executive Director, announced a 10 year contract had been inked.  APF said it planned to invest $30 million in new projects for the city, including a military and law enforcement training center with a 250 bed dormitory and an expansion of the jail to 2000 beds. The company also said it would build a homeless shelter, offer free health care for city residents, deliver meals to the needy and possibly provide a local police force.  Not bad for a city of only 3500 inhabitants.

All seemed well until Hilton brought in three Mercedes SUV’s complete with removable decals emblazoned with ‘City of Hardin Police Department.’ If Hardin actually had police department it probably would have gone relatively unnoticed.   However, Hardin hasn’t had a police department in over 30 years and that brought the entire story worldwide attention. This time, bloggers and conspiracy theorists heated up the internet with stories of FEMA camps and Big Brother.  At this point I am certain Hardin would be happy if that were the case. Instead, it is something far more mundane and possibly more harmful to the ones who were sucked in by the company.  Add to it the fact that neither Hilton nor Smith would disclose the exact terms of the contract, who was backing APF in the multimillion investment,  or who APF’s parent company was and you have a conspiracy of Twitter proportions.  Factored in to the ‘conspiracy’ are dubious remarks by Smith’s wife, when questioned about the specifics, “Don’t panic, just go with the flow and everything will be fine,” Kerri Smith, City of Hardin Mayoral candidate.

Shortly after the contract was signed by Two Rivers Authority and APF, the executive director of Two Rivers, Smith, was place on administrative leave with no public explanation.  In addition, the Billings Gazette staffer, Becky Shay, who had been covering the detention facility and the subsequent APF storyline,  suddenly quit her job with the newspaper and became APF’s Public Relations Officer within an hour of quitting the paper. The supposed world wide paramilitary organization hired a local beat reporter to manage its worldwide PR.  Just as the number of questions surrounding APF, Smith, and Shay were mounting up, the company’s website was mysteriously taken down; thus, fueling the internet rumors of black helicopters and interment camps.

Well, we can now declare the mystery has been solved. Unfortunately, I suspect jobs will be lost and reputations of life long Hardin citizens ruined. All at the hands of a grifter.

According to Matthew Brown (AP) who has been following this story closely:

Public documents and interviews with Hilton’s associates and legal adversaries offer a different picture, that of a convicted felon with a number of aliases, a string of legal judgments against him, two bankruptcies and a decades-long reputation for deals gone bad.

American Police Force is the company Hilton formed in March to take over the Hardin jail.

“Such schemes you cannot believe,” said Joseph Carella, an Orange County, Calif. doctor and co-defendant with Hilton in a real estate fraud case that resulted in a civil judgment against Hilton and several others.

“The guy’s brilliant. If he had been able to do honest work, he probably would have been a gazillionaire,” Carella said.

Court documents show Hilton has outstanding judgments against him in three civil cases totaling more than $1.1 million.

As for Hilton’s military expertise, including his claim to have advised forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, those interviewed knew of no such feats. Instead, Hilton was described alternately by those who know him as an arts dealer, cook, restaurant owner, land developer, loan broker and car salesman — always with a moneymaking scheme in the works.

Hilton did not return several calls seeking comment. American Police Force attorney Maziar Mafi referred questions to company spokeswoman Becky Shay.

When asked about court records detailing Hilton’s past, Shay replied, “The documents speak for themselves. If anyone has found public documents, the documents are what they are.”

Shay declined comment on Hilton’s military experience.

Al Peterson, vice president of Hardin’s Two Rivers Authority, which built the jail, declined to comment on Hilton’s legal troubles. He refused to say if he knew about Hilton’s past when the authority reached a 10-year agreement with American Police Force last month.

The deal is worth more than $2.6 million a year, according to city leaders.

Hilton has also pledged to build a $17 million military and law enforcement training center. And he’s promised to dispatch security to patrol Hardin’s streets, build an animal shelter and a homeless shelter and offer free health care to city resident’s out of the jail’s clinic.

Those additional promises were not included in the jail agreement, which remains in limbo because US Bank has so far declined to sign off on the contract. The bank is the trustee for the bonds used to fund the jail.

A US Bank spokeswoman declined to comment, but Peterson was adamant the deal would be approved.

“It’s a solid deal. That’s all I’ll say,” he said.

But a representative of a corrections advocacy group that has been critical of Hardin’s jail and has investigated Hilton’s past said city leaders dropped the ball.

“I’m amazed that city officials didn’t do basic research that would have raised significant questions about American Private Police Force and Mr. Hilton’s background,” said Alex Friedmann, vice president of the Private Corrections Institute.

Hilton, 55, uses the title “captain” when introducing himself and on his business cards. But he acknowledged it was not a military rank.

He said he is naturalized U.S. citizen and native of Montenegro. Aliases for Hilton that appear in court documents include Miodrag Dokovich, Michael Hamilton, Hristian Djokich and Michael Djokovich.

One attorney who dealt with Hilton in a fraud lawsuit referred to him as a “chameleon” and he has a reputation for winning people over with his charm.

His criminal record goes back to at least 1988, when Hilton was arrested in Santa Ana, Calif. for writing bad checks.

Beginning in 1993, Hilton spent six years in prison in California on a dozen counts of grand theft and other charges including illegal diversion of construction funds.

The charges included stealing $20,000 in a real estate swindle in which Hilton convinced an associate to give him a deed on property in Long Beach, Calif., ostensibly as collateral on a loan. Hilton turned around and sold the property to another party but was caught when the buyer contacted the original owner.

After his release, he got entangled in at least three civil lawsuits alleging fraud or misrepresentation. Those included luring investors to sink money into gold and silver collectible coins; posing as a fine arts dealer in Utah in order to convince a co uple to give him a $100,000 silver statue; and, in the case involving co-defendant Carella, seeking investors for an assisted living complex in Southern California that was never built.

Carella said he was duped into becoming a partner in the development project and that Hilton used Carella’s status as a physician to lure others into the scheme. He was described in court testimony as a “pawn” used by Hilton to lure investors.

Those involved with Hilton say he is an accomplished cook with a flair for the extravagant — wining and dining potential partners, showing up at the Utah couple’s house to negotiate for the silver statue in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

“This is the way we got taken,” said Carolyn Call of Provo, Utah, who said she gave Hilton her family’s silver statue to sell on the open market.

According to court documents, Hilton turned around and gave the statue to an attorney to pay for his services.

Two California attorneys said Wednesday that after learning of Hilton’s latest activities they planned to follow him to Montana to seek payment on the outstanding judgments against him.

“Once I know that there is an asset or some sort of funds to go after, we’ll go after it,” said Call’s attorney, Roger Naghash.

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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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On 09-12-09 our Country came together in Washington, D.C. to protest our government.  I came back with renewed hope for my Country; I’m sure I am not alone in this renewed hope. During the trip I met scores of people from all walks of life and every corner of  this land.  Many people arrived without a plan.  They heard of  the march and felt compelled to be there.  It was like a scene from Close Encounters where everyone was driven by an inexplicable force to meet at Devil’s Mountain.  Not knowing exactly what to expect didn’t prevent them from understanding they just  had to be there. 

                                            The march was to begin at Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue.  

 The route was a mile long down the avenue to the Capital.  At 8:30 a.m., Freedom Plaza itself was packed and overflowing into the street.   Some of those with our group  and I took up space across the street at the Wilson Building to wait for the rest our group.  This side of the street, we were told by volunteers, was not part of the area which the permit was covered.  14th Street also continued to allow vehicles.  I’m not sure if was part of the D.C. Police’ plans or not, but it became increasingly evident that their attempts to keep 14th Street open to traffic were futile and they closed it to vehicles.  From the steps of the Wilson building, as far as the eye could see up and down both Penn Ave and 14th Street, the people were pouring in from all directions.

Those who have ever been to a championship game of their favorite home team know the feeling of being among thousands of like minded people.  I have been to such a game and although the electricity is incredible, it pales in comparison to the energy of thousands upon thousands, perhaps millions (the count still isn’t finalized) of people in one place and of one heart… love of Country. 

I was not expecting to be overwhelmed with emotion and the tears on my cheeks caught me off guard.  When I turned to those beside me and saw their moistened faces I could no longer contain my feelings.  Until this day, I had been filled with anger at my government and fear for my Country.  Anger so strong and bottled that I had been snapping at those closest to me.  Anger so strong that I was learning what it felt like to hate.  That anger collided with love on Saturday and together they healed my broken soul.  I wasn’t alone.

One by one at different moments during the march each of us became overwhelmed with the emotion and energy of the crowd. We wept tears of happiness and tears of sorrow for our Country.  Until you have cried tears of love for your Country and tears of loss for your freedom it is impossible to understand why we marched; why we are so passionate for our beliefs; why we feel remorse for the direction our Country is heading.

On that beautiful day in D.C., we marched.  Young and old, healthy and infirm… we marched.  Kids with signs, kids in strollers, kids in costume.  Parents and grandparents.  People with walkers, canes, and wheelchairs.  We marched.  All came to Pennslyvania Avenue and made the mile long trek past office building windows filled with onlookers.  We marched with one mind… to stand at the Capital and roar with one voice that we have had enough.

And roar we did! One of the most incredible moments of the entire event took place a couple of blocks into the march.  From far behind me in the crowd I could hear a rumbling.  I wasn’t sure what the eerie sound was but as it drew closer my spirit leaped in recognition.  I let the first wave wash over me and move forward through the crowd as I listened to thousands of people chant, “U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A.”  With the next wave I joined in as we yelled in one accord, “You Lie! You Lie! You Lie!”   The raw pure emotion experienced in wave after wave of ever increasing crescendos of chanting was a liberating experience.

If you were to ask the marchers why they were there you would likely get  just as many diverse answers as there were creative, hand made signs.  If you were to question them further and inquire as to whose fault it is that our government has gone so far awry, the vast majority would point to themselves for allowing it.  This is where Washington has underestimated us.  We are awake now and we are watching.  Things will NEVER be the same.

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