ObamaEd is Coming to a School Near You

Do you know what the Common Core Curriculum is? Whether you have children or not, unless you live in Alaska, Texas, Nebraska or Virginia, it behooves you to become familiar with it before it kicks in, full-bore, in 2014.

Forty five states have adopted the entire Common Core Curriculum. One might ask why that is so dangerous. After all, Federal standards have been around since Jimmy Carter made the Department of Education a bona fide arm of the federal government in the 1970s. Simply put, Common Core is the federal government’s takeover of education.

 It means the federal government now decides what children learn. Neither parents nor local school districts will have any say in what is being taught. Education is being nationalized. 

Take, for example, the mathematics component of the program. Glyn Wright, Executive Director of Eagle Forum told Fox News: “The math standard focuses on investigative math, which has been shown to be a disaster… With the new math standard in the Common Core, there are no longer absolute truths. So 3 times 4 can now equal 11 so long as a student can effectively explain how they reached that answer.” 

Via: Political Outcast

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The Five Agrees That Syrian Rebels Are Moderate: ‘Moderately Psycho’

The Five opened its Thursday afternoon show by looking at recent comments from Obama Administration officials assuring Congress and the American people that the rebel forces in Syria are more “moderate” than they are being portrayed in the media. Greg Gutfeld said Secretary of State John Kerry is “right” that the rebels are moderate. “They’re moderately psycho.”

Gutfeld employed an elaborate reality TV-themed metaphor to get his point across. “We can’t confirm anything about this conflict except that it’s a conflict,” he said. “Essentially it’s like the TV show Storage Wars where you show up and you’re going to buy that locker and you have no idea what’s inside of it.”

Dana Perino, who had her own experience as President George W. Bush’s press secretary trying to sell the idea of war in the Middle East, said she’s “trying to be supportive” of the administration, but is finding that “everything that you read their case seems to unravel a little bit more.”

Next up, Eric Bolling, who said he was told to keep his props at home today, focused in on a “disturbing” video of rebels executing Syrian soldiers, posted by The New York Times, that he says “underscores” that “we don’t know who the rebels are.” He asked, “Are you sure you want to help those people out?”

Bob Beckel was the only member of the panel who was willing to defend the “Free Syrian Army,” which he said condemned the executions by the rebels. He also fought back against Bolling’s characterization of the proposed action in Syria as a war, saying “this is an exercise in humanitarian relief.”

Watch video below, via Fox News:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Russia gave UN 100-page report in July blaming Syrian rebels for Aleppo sarin attack syria

BERLIN — Russia says a deadly March sarin attack in an Aleppo suburb was carried out by Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, and it has delivered a 100-page report laying out its evidence to the United Nations.

A statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website late Wednesday said the report included detailed scientific analysis of samples that Russian technicians collected at the site of the alleged attack, Khan al Asal in northern Syria. The attack killed 26 people.

A U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, confirmed that Russia delivered the report in July.

The report itself was not released. But the statement drew a pointed comparison between what it said was the scientific detail of the report and the far shorter intelligence summaries that the United States, Britain and France have released to justify their assertion that the Syrian government launched chemical weapons against Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21. The longest of those summaries, by the French, ran nine pages. Each relies primarily on circumstantial evidence to make its case, and they disagree with one another on some details, including the number of people who died in the attack.

The Russian statement warned the United States and its allies not to conduct a military strike against Syria until the United Nations had completed a similarly detailed scientific study into the Aug. 21 attack. It charged that what it called the current “hysteria” about a possible military strike in the West was similar to the false claims and poor intelligence that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Via: McClatchey

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/05/201268/russia-releases-100-page-report.html#.UikG6MakqFk#storylink=cpy

Can We Pay a Minimum Wage That Makes Everyone Rich?

Last week, fast-food workers staged a one-day strike in 60 U.S. cities to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour, more than double the current federal minimum of $7.25. The nationwide effort, “Fight for 15,” was organized by the Service Employees International Union.

I feel bad for those who are relegated to a minimum-wage job. I feel worse for those who want a minimum-wage job as a steppingstone to something better and would be denied that opportunity by the imposition of a higher wage floor. A higher wage is great for the workers who keep their jobs; it isn’t so great for those who wouldn’t get hired because McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) starts asking its existing workforce to do a bit more. With a higher minimum wage, the cost of automating certain tasks suddenly becomes more affordable.

Raising the minimum wage to lift people out of poverty has the opposite effect. So why does an idea that violates the most basic principle of economics keep coming back to haunt us? It may appeal to our humanitarian instincts, but as social policy, it fails the test.

Let’s start with the basics. As with any good or service, there is a supply of, and demand for, labor. Supply and demand meet at what’s known as the equilibrium price. The unintended consequences of setting a cap or a floor on prices have been well documented. Many economics textbooks use New York City’s rent-control laws to demonstrate the effect of price caps: a supply shortage as landlords keep apartments off the market rather than lease them at a below-market rate. The lack of supply also gives them the power to charge above-market rates on apartments that aren’t subject to rent control.

Via: Bloomberg

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Three arrested in Wal-Mart protests that extend to 15 cities

Wal-Mart workers and supporters launched protests in at least 15 cities Thursday, urging the world's largest retailer provide higher wages, better jobs and the right to unionize.

OUR Wal-Mart, a coalition including Wal-Mart workers, community organizers and the United Food & Commercial Workers organized day-long protests, urging Wal-Mart to pay full-time wages of $25,000 a year, or $12 an hour. It says many of Wal-Mart's 1.3 million associates are part-time employees averaging just $8.80 an hour.

The Wal-Mart protests - which follow ;ast week's broader, widespread strikes among fast-food industry workers seeking $15 an hour wages from fast food chains - were scheduled for Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, Boston, Orlando, Minneapolis and Washington D.C., where Wal-Mart is threatening to cut expansion if it's required to pay a city mandated "living wage" of at least $12.50 an hour.

At least three current or former Wal-Mart employees were arrested in New York City Thursday morning for disorderly conduct as they attempted to deliver a petition to the office of Wal-Mart director Chris Williams. The independent board member is CEO of New York-based investment bank Williams Capital Management Trust. About three dozen protesters, some wearing green shirts with OUR Wal-Mart stenciled on them, participated in the rally.

Protesters also planned to rally outside of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's San Francisco apartment building. Mayer was appointed to Wal-Mart's board of directors in 2012.

Via: USA Today

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An Election Integrity Victory in Mississippi

There was a historic victory for election integrity on Wednesday: A federal court approved aconsent decree in a lawsuit filed in Mississippi by the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) that requires a local county to finally clean up its voter registration list.

As The Foundry previously reported, the ACRU sued Walthall County (a majority-white county that Mitt Romney won in 2012) under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) because of the county’s failure to remove ineligible felons, dead voters, voters who had moved, and noncitizens from its voter rolls. In fact, Walthall County has more registered voters than the Census shows it has voting-age residents by 124 percent, a problem shared by a dozen counties in Mississippi. Section 8 of the NVRA requires states and counties to maintain accurate voter rolls by engaging in regular list maintenance that removes ineligible voters.

In the consent decree approved by Judge Keith Starrett of the Southern District of Mississippi, Walthall County must check its voter registration list against:

• The records of the Social Security Administration and the Mississippi Department of Health to find dead voters;
• State Department of Motor Vehicles records to find voters who have moved out of the county;
• Conviction records of the local county court clerk, the Mississippi Department of Corrections, and the Mississippi and Louisiana U.S. attorneys’ offices to find felons;
• The Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to find noncitizens; and
• Jury-duty declinations and county tax filings to find noncitizens and nonresidents.

Via: The Foundry

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Obama's lobbying organization: We will not engage in Syria debate

The director of President Obama's political arm, Organizing for Action, confirmed to supporters that the group will not lobby on the president's behalf in the debate over whether the U.S. should strike Syria.

OFA Executive Director Jon Carson acknowledged in a conference call Tuesday that many of the group's volunteers have raised the issue of Syria since Obama over the weekend announced that he would seek congressional authorization for the strike. But OFA, Obama's most potent lobbying apparatus, has decided to sit out the Syria debate, Carson said.

There was speculation that OFA, which has mobilized millions of supporters and volunteers on Obama's behalf on issues ranging from immigration to gun control, wasn't being used to lobby for an intervention in Syria because so many of Obama's liberal supporters object to his taking military action in another Middle Eastern country, as does most of the general public.

Via: Washington Examiner

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GOOD: Obama cancels LA trip as ‘NO’ votes on Syria pile up

I hope Obama having to cancel his fundraisers and what not is a good sign that Republicans in the House will kill this Syrian drive-by bombing plan of his:

THE HILL – President Obama has scrapped a planned two-day trip to Los Angeles early next week ahead of a congressional vote on a military strike against Syria.

The cancellation of the trip suggests the urgency with which Obama needs to press his case to win approval from Congress for military action.

“The president’s trip to California has been canceled,” a White House official said. “He will remain in Washington to work on the Syrian resolution before Congress.”

While prospects for passage of a resolution in the Senate look positive, the White House does not appear to have the votes in the lower chamber to win — at least not yet.

The president had been scheduled to speak to an AFL-CIO convention while in California, in what the White House had billed as a continuation of his middle class jobs tour.

He was also scheduled to attend a $32,400 per plate dinner at the home of Marta Kauffman, the co-creator of the sitcom “Friends.”

According to an email obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the fundraiser would be rescheduled for a date in “the near future.” Attendees were also offered a refund of their donation to the Democratic National Committee.

There were indications that Obama could be readying a national address to make his case for military action, which remains unpopular among lawmakers and the American public.

Via: The Right Scoop

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