Wow! This is interesting...

Did you hear the one about a state representative who resigned from a state Common Core Educational Standards committee because it “involved the most extreme national interest groups on education in planning and executing official Legislative hearings”? While she was pointing to The John Birch Society, our American Opinion affiliate, and the Tea Party, we believe she left out the ultra-liberal Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Governors Association, and the Council of Chief State School Officers, not to mention other various institutions, foundations, teacher unions, and trade associations who took money to promote Common Core standards.

 

Two professional educators were on the Common Core Validation Committee, but in the end both refused to give their support to the standards. These were Dr. Sandra Stotsky and Dr. James Milgram. Both of whom flew to Wisconsin to testify against the standards. But what did the media choose to focus on? They focused on who paid the travel expenses to bring these and other experts in.

--JBS; 110413

A Constant Battle for Some

Battling the Media
Early on in our founding, The John Birch Society grew to be the target of the mainstream press. Not willing to toe the politically correct line of expanding the federal government beyond its constitutional limitations set the organization up as a figurehead of the conservative movement to be lambasted at will.

 

When one searches the organization online, many negative mentions and articles come up. Usually the resulting coverage revolves around a handful of smears which are easily debunked.

 

This past Sunday, the Dallas Morning News published a biased article attempting to implicate JBS as creating a "volatile atmosphere" in Dallas, Texas in 1963 that led to the assassination of President Kennedy. 

In our response, we state:

"On November 22, Oswald shoots and kills the president. Yet, the Dallas Morning News article would have you believe a “volatile atmosphere” generated by “right-wing extremism” contributed to the death of the president.  Are we to think that the Marxist Oswald surrounded himself with conservatives who led him to commit murder?

"This Dallas Morning News article is one of many in a trend the mainstream media has generated to use political correctness as a tool to discredit the discussion and the practice of limited government under the Constitution. For if the Constitution was obeyed, estimates show that the federal government would be about 20 percent its current size and cost. And for those politicians, lobbyists and crony capitalists who see the Constitution as a hurdle to be overcome or as an excuse to strengthen its grip on liberty, the idea and practice of constitutionally limiting the government is very dangerous and debilitating to their causes.

  

"The Dallas Morning News is merely playing its part in the smear of conservatives concerned about the country’s future. It’s a trend that will likely continue as long as big government advocates are losing the war they began on American liberty. We urge concerned Americans to read the Constitution and seek the solutions it contains to many of America’s ills. Then get organized and active to restore the liberties that have been taken away from us by an out-of-control federal government."

 

If you're part of any tea party group, you understand that the media doesn't just focus its ire on JBS. Effective action against big government comes with a price. Wear that badge proudly!

=============================================================================================

 

Rough Road to Recovery: Newest Issue of The New American

If job figures, incomes, inflation, and debt are any indication, America is not on its way to economic recovery. Charles Scaliger offers the inside scoop in the cover story.

 

Plus, don't miss the following articles:

War in Syria: Empowering the Islamistsby Alex Newman

 

War in Syria: Empowering the UN
by Alex Newman

 

The Price of Price-gouging Laws
by Steve Byas

 

Educators Expose Dangers of Common Core
by Alex Newman

 

The Red Scare
by Thomas R. Eddlem

 

Pro-life Cause Needs a Clear, Steady “Trumpet”
by Jack Kenny

Well that's depressing to hear!

Is American Exceptionalism Dead?
Last week the Wisconsin state legislature held public hearings about Common Core standards it had adopted years ago even before the standards were written. The federal government had waved the carrot of funding in front of a legislature experiencing budget shortfall. Need we say more?

 

During the hearings, a superintendent from a public school district in NE Wisconsin made the shocking statement that American exceptionalism was dead and that Wisconsinites should just accept that we live in a global community. This is the ideology that public schools are turning out.

 

Yet, if American exceptionalism is dead, then isn't it because of this international attitude or agenda? When students are taught to think globally and act locally, how long is it before the foundation of what does make America exceptional crumble?

The great heritage of America's founding is either rarely taught in public schools or is just touched upon. How will students come to know of American exceptionalism when they do not know of the limitations of the federal government or of the rights of the states to protect its citizens? Or of the incentives that have pushed generations of Americans and immigrants to raise families, start businesses, freely worship, and rise where failure so easily lurks?

 

Fortunately other voices were heard at the hearings, including two (Alan Scholl and Mary Black) from JBS-affiliate FreedomProject Education, both of whom discussed the dangers of federal standards, the lack of local control and acceptance of plummeting educational standards.

 

Unfortunately, high school students were paraded through the hearings as well. They parroted the global rhetoric that had been pounded into them during their educational career.

  

Common Core is just one of the very many tools that establishment elites are using to strip America of its exceptionalism. Without exceptionalism, how are Americans to rise above to better compete with the global market?

 

The New American has published a reprint on Common Core, so you can share with others through your various functions and events. Also, FreedomProject Education has produced a video on it. You can view it free online and purchase either JBS (available Thursday, Oct. 10) or FPE branded copies of it to distribute. Be sure to contact your state legislators about blocking Common Core and contact Congress to block federal funding.

 

It is through education that we will be able to achieve less government, more responsibility and -- with God's help -- a better world. Get involved today!

Obama to America: "Shut up!"

Paul: Obama’s response to shutdown is just ‘shut up’

It has been said that politics is the art of compromise. Try as they may, Washington leaders hardly ever get absolutely everything they want.

Polls show Americans are worried about the implementation of Obamacare — worried about keeping their current health insurance plans, the new law itself, the exchanges, potential fines, personal privacy, keeping their jobs, their work hours and a host of other issues too numerous to list here. Both the country and the Congress have much to discuss.

Right now, though, President Obama refuses to engage in any debate or discussion. The president is demanding that he get 100 percent of what he wants, and if he doesn’t, he and his Democratic allies in the Senate will keep the government shuttered.

Republicans have offered compromises that might stop or dull some of the negative effects of Obamacare but that would also pass a budget and keep the government functioning. Still, Mr. Obama refuses to budge. He will not even consider compromise.

Republicans are told that the law has already passed and that we’re being obstructionists for attempting to question or modify it. However, since when in this country after a law is passed is it eternally set in stone? When has it ever been true that Congress cannot look at and alter or improve existing law?

The Obama administration announced in August that it sought to reform our current mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. I’ve been speaking out on the need to get rid of these unjust laws for some time and look forward to working with anyone in either party who is serious about doing so.

Some of those mandatory-minimum sentencing laws have been in place since the 1980s. Does anyone think that just because they were once passed into law, that Mr. Obama or I are somehow “extremists” for wanting to change them? Does a bad law have to be decades old before we do anything about it? When Ronald Reagan was elected and the top tax rate was at 70 percent and had been so for 40 years, did he just throw up his hands and accept it? Or did he change the bad laws?

Plenty of people are saying Obamacare is bad law, and not just Republicans. The Teamsters are saying Obamacare has serious problems. Warren Buffett says it’s a problem. Former President Bill Clinton says there are problems.

Even the president himself acknowledges that there are some significant flaws. He has sought to delay portions of Obamacare through executive order, including the employer mandate.

There are still many compromise solutions that would end the government shutdown, like a short-term spending bill while we negotiate. A conference committee with an equal number of Republicans and Democrats is historically how we solved an impasse.

Unfortunately, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is rejecting any compromise. There has to be some middle ground, and Republicans are willing to work with Democrats to get there, but the president refuses to listen.

We, as elected representatives in the House and Senate, are hearing from our constituents that they do not want Obamacare as it currently stands. A recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll shows that only 12 percent of Americans think Obamacare will have a positive impact on their lives.

We are looking for compromise with Mr. Obama. We are looking for give-and-take solutions.

The president is intransigent. He will not give an inch, yet he expects the entire country to take the whole Obamacare mile. It is his way or the highway.

It was not a good idea to shut down the government. It’s also not a good idea to give Mr. Obama 100 percent of what he wants on Obamacare. Why is the president so opposed to trying to make this law less bad? Why is he continually refusing to compromise?

What are we supposed to do with a president who is completely unwilling to negotiate? Mr. Obama and the Democrats in the Senate would rather shut down our government than work with Republicans on serious amendments and solutions.



Click here to read the op-ed on washingtontimes.com

Such a Positive Way to Look @ Things!

WILL WEISSERT 8 hours ago

 

HOUSTON (AP) — Thanks to Texas' new senator, Dale Huls is out of a job — at least for now. Yet Huls has never been prouder that he voted for him.
"Without Ted Cruz this doesn't happen," said Huls, a NASA systems engineer who was among roughly 3,000 federal employees furloughed from Houston's Johnson Space Center after tea party Republicans triggered the partial government shutdown.
"This is something Americans have to get used to," said Huls. "Even if it affects your livelihood, you've got to stand up."
Perhaps more than anywhere else, Texas embodies the factors behind the shutdown: big government and the rebellion against it.
The state is one of the richest beneficiaries of federal spending, with its sprawling military bases, Gulf Coast seaports and more than 1,200-mile border with Mexico, which help account for more than 131,500 full-time federal employees. Only California, Virginia and the District of Columbia have more.
Yet Cruz's firebrand opposition to the nation's new entitlement program — the Affordable Care Act — and his campaign to stop government growth at all costs were also born here, and resonate deeply with many conservatives. In Houston, home to thousands of federal workers and to Cruz himself, the shutdown has brought the love/hate relationship with government into plain view.
Huls said he doesn't believe his job is a waste of money: "The public doesn't think much of federal workers these days, but we're people with car payments just like everyone else."
Still, he said of Cruz, "He's fighting for what he believes in and I'm taking a side."

View gallery."

Dale Huls, a NASA systems engineer who was one of about 3,000 federal employees furloughed from Hous …

But Jeff Darby, an investigator with the wage and hour division of the U.S. Labor Department based in Beaumont, east of Houston, said he thinks the showdown is more about political ambition than ideals.
"It is not anyone's patriotic duty to make Ted Cruz a household name," said Darby, a leader of the American Federation of Government Employees, who said he's "at home looking at my two dogs instead of working" because of furloughs.
A rising tea party star, Cruz was elected to the Senate in 2012. He carried Harris County by 18,000 votes, even though it includes Houston's minority population and government workers. He had been in office barely nine months when took to the Senate floor for a 21-plus-hour quasi-filibuster decrying the health care law, and then led an effort to block a budget deal with Democrats.
Cruz supporters tend to make a distinction between government workers and government. The former can be worthwhile; the latter is taking on too much and must be pruned to its essential functions. In a Pew Research Center poll this week, 41 percent of conservative Republicans expressed anger at the federal government, up from 32 percent in 2011 and just 5 percent in 2006.
But with the workers now being idled, some conservatives in Cruz's hometown are debating whether his tactics have gone too far.
Carolyn Hodges, the Houston-based president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, said her group was split between conservatives supporting Cruz and others who want compromise. She said she personally "would like to see some movement on behalf of both" Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
NASA is the hardest-hit federal agency in terms of furloughs, with 97 percent of its 18,000-plus employees nationwide sent home. At Johnson Space Center, only about 200 civilians remain working because they protect property and life, like two U.S. astronauts and four others currently aboard the International Space Station.
"It's frustration that others don't understand because they're not directly affected," Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, said of NASA employees sent home. He declined to comment specifically on Cruz saying, "We need him and he needs us."

View gallery."

Dale Huls, a NASA systems engineer who was one of about 3,000 federal employees furloughed from Hous …

President Barack Obama separated his time in the U.S. Senate from a cadre of first-term senators, Cruz included, who have channeled the tea party's anger toward the president while raising their own profiles.
" ... I recognize that in today's media age, being controversial, taking controversial positions, rallying the most extreme parts of your base — whether it's left or right — is a lot of times the fastest way to get attention or raise money, but it's not good for government," Obama said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. "It's not good for the people we're supposed to be serving."
Huls said he has enough savings to tide him over for at least two months without a paycheck. But he's worried about not making up money he borrowed from his retirement plan and says he may eventually have to talk to other creditors about extensions.
"But I don't consider myself a victim," Huls said. "I'm in this fight too and this is my role."
Pedro Rivera, a space center programs specialist who is working on the Orion capsule the U.S. hopes to send to Mars, said he too is willing to accept being furloughed even if the shutdown means a delay in Orion's scheduled test launch next year.
"I think it's a small price to pay for the future generations," said Rivera, who says he considers the new health care law un-American.
But space center financial management specialist Bridget Broussard-Guidry said her colleagues include single parents who can't afford a long shutdown.
"Even though you save for a rainy day, you don't know how long it's going to rain," said Broussard-Guidry, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees.
___
White House correspondent Julie Pace in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

This article was taken from Yahoo News!

Stopping the Buck

My 13-hour long filibuster to force President Obama to admit he could not deploy drones to target American citizens for killing on U.S. soil.

You and other patriots swamped the offices of my colleagues with phone calls, emails and petitions to beat back (for now) President Obama's national gun registration scheme.

And just recently you rose up at town halls across America and forced the administration to halt his march to war in Syria.

These victories were only possible because the politicians in Washington saw that you stood with me.

That's why everyone in Washington drew a big red circle around September 30th on their calendars.

On that day, I must turn in my financial report.

You see, Big Government politicians will use that report as a basis to judge whether I really have the grassroots support and resources to prevent them from greasing their agenda through Congress.

So I've launched the Stand with Rand End of Quarter Money Bomb today.

My goal is to raise $112,456 by Monday, September 30th to prove to the politicians in Washington that you and I are fully prepared to FIGHT their schemes to grow government, balloon our debt and trash our liberties.

President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his liberal allies in Congress will search for ANY hint of weakness on the part of conservatives.

I've always been able to count on you in the past.

Will you agree to stand with me as I continue to fight in the Senate for our conservative values?



You and I have fought high-stake battles in the past.

But the agenda that's being whispered about on Capitol Hill is truly breathtaking in its size and scope.

In just a few short weeks, Congress will vote to raise our nation's debt ceiling.

Our $16.6 TRILLION debt is a moral outrage.

And rather than slash spending to restore fiscal sanity, President Obama is demanding Congress pass a "clean" debt ceiling increase.

As you and I have seen in the past, Congress will gladly kick the can down the road and pile trillions of new dollars of debt on the heads of future generations.

Only in Washington is this madness and irresponsible behavior viewed as "consensus."

I won't stand for that and I'm determined to fight.

But it's not a lone freshman Senator from Kentucky causing my colleagues to sit up and take notice.

It's you.

That's why I need to prove you're still in my corner.

So I hope I can count on you to make your most generous contribution of $250, $100, $50 or $35 to the Stand with Rand End of Quarter Money Bomb right away.

If that is too much, please chip in a contribution of $25 or even just $10.



One sad fact about Washington is when the politicians aren't trying to finance their Big Government schemes with deficit spending, they're trying to grow government with higher taxes.

And one bill quietly snaking its way through Congress is the Internet Tax Mandate.

The last thing we need is more taxes for the purpose of implementing more government.

The internet is one of the greatest inventions of our time - and also happens to be the one marketplace with limited government intrusion.

The only way to ensure its growth is to allow small businesses and the consumers they serve to be as free from government interference as possible.

While larger corporations can take on the additional costs of the Internet Tax Mandate, small businesses won't be so fortunate.

I fear they won't be able to afford the extra burden -- putting them out of business and stifling economic growth.

Will you stand with me against the Internet Tax Mandate by making your most generous contribution of $250, $100, $50, or $35 today?

If that is more than you can afford, please chip in a contribution of $25 or even just $10.

You see, it's not just taxes and spending on the Big Government checklist.

Our gun rights always seem to end up on the chopping block.

Just the other day, President Obama called for a "transformation" of our nation's gun laws -- blatantly calling on the anti-gunners to spring into action.

Gun control activists have been targeting many of my Senate colleagues for months with everything from bus tours to ugly TV ads.

Based on public statements from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I’m afraid we could see another gun control Senate showdown this fall.

Vice President Joe Biden has been feverishly working the phones, telling Senators that failing to pass gun control will come back to haunt them in 2014!

I don’t believe that, and your support will help me prove it.



The good news is you and I were able to beat back their national gun registry scheme last spring.

But that doesn't mean the gun control lobby has accepted defeat.

They sense weakness.

And the best way to project strength is a loud and clear message when I turn in my fundraising report on September 30th.

So I hope I can count on you to make your most generous contribution of $250, $100, $50, or even $35 to the Stand with Rand End of Quarter Money Bomb.

If that's too much for you, please chip in a contribution of $25 or $10.

You are sadly mistaken if you thought that was the end of the Big Government onslaught.

You see, the senate's version of  “immigration reform,” is in the Republican House’s court.

The GOP-controlled House could stand firm and pass legislation that starts with border security and removes the onerous National ID database requirement for American citizens.

Under the National ID scheme, the Department of Homeland Security would create a massive new photo database to include names, ages, and social security numbers of every single American.

And if you don't get one, you'd be barred from working legally.

How long before you'd be required to show your National ID card to rent a house, open a bank account or even buy groceries?

How long would it be before you'd be required to be checked against the Department of Homeland Security's National Database before you could buy a firearm?



Such a scheme is only the beginning for Washington bureaucrats watching and cataloguing our every move.

This is the so-called “solution” to Congress’ failure to control our borders.

“Just let us spy on you, and you won’t have anything to worry about,” they say.

You and I have already seen President Obama’s IRS and NSA vastly abuse their power over American citizens.  And we’re supposed to believe this newest power won’t be abused?

It would be madness to believe it won’t.

But if the House passes legislation that even differs by a word from the Senate bill, it will go to a Conference Committee where select members of both houses and both parties will have to hash out final legislation.

Any kind of shenanigans could go on at that point, so we need to make sure we keep the pressure on both houses of Congress.

You see, these sorts of backroom deals are only successful when politicians believe no one is looking -- or worse -- no one is powerful enough to stop them.

Forcing Congress to debate our broken borders in the light of day will only happen if I can submit a quarterly fundraising report that demonstrates I have the resources necessary to whip up a storm of grassroots support through email, direct mail, online and social media ads.

That's why I hope I can count on you to make a generous contribution of $250, $100, $50, or even $35.

If that's more than you can afford, please consider chipping in a contribution of $25 or $10.

I wasn't just me standing in the well of the senate for 13 hours filibustering President Obama's policy to deploy drones to target American citizens on U.S. soil.

You stood with me and made the difference.

And it wasn't any great speech I gave that turned the tide on President Obama's gun control scheme or stopped his march for war in Syria.

Your grassroots activism was the loudest voice saying, "no!"

If you and I are going to slam the breaks on the Big Government agenda over the next few months, I'm going to need to show everyone I can kick up a storm of grassroots opposition.

So I hope I can count on you to make your most generous contribution of $250, $100, $50 or even just $35 to Stand with Rand End of Quarter Money Bomb TODAY!

If that's too much, please chip in a contribution of $25 or $10.

Thank you for all that you do.

In Liberty,

Senator Rand Paul

Just in Case YOU Need a Laugh Today...

Quit trashing Obama's accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. He has an impressive list of accomplishments:

First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.

First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.

First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.

First President to violate the War Powers Act.

First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.

First President to spend a trillion dollars on "shovel-ready" jobs when there was no such thing as "shovel-ready" jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.

First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.

First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with criminal convictions.

First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.

First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.

First President to terminate Americas ability to put a man in space.

First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.

First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.

First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.

First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).

First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.

First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).

First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.

First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.

First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 102 to date.

First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.

First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.

First President to go on multiple "global apology tours" and concurrent "insult our friends" tours.

First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers.

First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
 First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense.

First President to repeat the Holy Quran & tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.

First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they "volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences."

Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.

First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).

How is this hope and change working out for you?