Calif. district aims to stop bullying by watching kids' social media use; tactic stirs debate

GLENDALE, Calif. –  A Southern California school district is trying to stop cyberbullying by watching what students post on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday (http://lat.ms/1dgGpBq ) that Glendale Unified School District hired the company Geo Listening last year to track postings by about 14,000 middle and high school students.

Chris Frydrych, the founder and CEO of the Hermosa Beach-based company, says he expects to be monitoring about 3,000 schools worldwide by the end of the year.

The Glendale district is paying $40,500 and in exchange, the company's computers scour public posts by students and alerts school administrators when they find something they think should spur an intervention.

So far, no students have been disciplined, but some say the program infringes on their privacy.

Via: Fox News

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Democrat Coakley to run for Mass. governor in 2014

BOSTON –  Martha Coakley, the popular Democratic state attorney general who lost the 2010 U.S. Senate special election to Republican Scott Brown, is joining the race for Massachusetts governor, her campaign announced Sunday.

Coakley planned a formal campaign announcement Monday morning in her hometown of Medford, followed by a three-day blitz of 18 cities and towns. She intended to listen to voters and discuss her vision for strengthening the state's economy and improving its education system, her campaign announced.

Coakley, 60, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment Sunday.

She's joining a field that has become crowded since Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick announced he wouldn't seek a third term next year.

The other Democrats already in the race include state Treasurer Steven Grossman, former Obama administration health care official Don Berwick, former federal and state homeland security official Juliette Kayyem and former Wellesley selectman Joseph Avellone.

The candidacy of another Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, state Sen. Dan Wolf, is pending the outcome of discussions with the state Ethics Commission over his ownership stake in Cape Air.

Via: Fox News
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Obama to warn GOP in economy speech ahead of debt ceiling, shutdown battles

President Barack Obama is marking the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse by trying to lay claim to an economic turnaround and warning Republicans against moves that he contends would risk a backslide.

His message to the GOP: Don't oppose raising the nation's debt limit, don't threaten to close down the government in a budget fight, and don't push to delay the health care law or starve it of federal money.

The economic emphasis, after weeks devoted to the Syrian crisis, begins coming into focus in a series of events kicked off by a Rose Garden speech Monday. It's a determined effort to confront public skepticism about his stewardship of the economy and to put down his marker for budget clashes with Congress in the weeks ahead.

The White House argues that a better capitalized and better regulated financial sector is extending more credit, fueling an economy now able to withstand headwinds such as spending cuts and tax increases.

"You can draw this straight line from the health of the financial system to the ways the financial system impacts the economy," said Jason Furman, the chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

Obama can point to a growing economy, rising housing prices, 35 straight months of hiring, a rebounding stock market and other signs of recovery.

Five years after the federal government stepped in and infused banks with $245 billion in taxpayer money to avert a financial meltdown, the government has been paid back nearly in full.

Via: Fox News

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Hillary! Because What Difference Does it Make?

Watching Hillary get a Liberty Medal on September 10, the day before the anniversary of the attack on the United States soil and the more recent murder of our ambassador and others in Benghazi, I think it's time to review the record of a woman whose life is marked by deceit and professional failure and ask about the sanity and judgment of her ardent supporters.

Hillary came to public attention with her graduation speech at Wellesley College.

She was chosen for this honor not because of grades or character or service to that community but because her influential roommate threatened a strike if she were not allowed to speak. Once the school caved to this demand, Hillary -- who just two years earlier supported Senator Edward Brooke, the first black American to be elected to the Senate -- hurled a vicious attack on him.. The charges were hurtful to him and without substance. As Christopher Andersen recounts:

Hillary offered nothing more than the muddled, sophomoric peace-and-love dogma that was so prevalent on campuses at the time. And, predictably, when it was over, Hillary's mesmerized classmates leaped up to their feet and cheered.

What difference does it make? Doesn't this reflect on the inconstancy of her political views and loyalties, her willingness to demagogue and slander and to use muscle to promote herself? What does it say about her empathy for Black community whom she professes to support?

Via: American Thinker

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The Long, Withdrawing Roar - Column: It’s Putin’s world now. America is just living in it.

“The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full,” Matthew Arnold wrote in “Dover Beach“ (1867), “… But now I only hear / its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar / Retreating, to the breath / Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear / And naked shingles of the world.”

The roar Arnold had in mind was the sound of Christianity’s withdrawal from Western Europe. But his words describe equally well what is happening in the Greater Middle East. President Obama put it this way during his speech to the nation Tuesday evening: “For nearly seven decades, the United States has been the anchor of global security,” including in this geographically central, resource-rich, and conflict-ridden region. But now we are weary of the burden. “A veteran put it more bluntly,” the president said. “‘This nation is sick and tired of war.’”

America has left Iraq. America is leaving Afghanistan. America was so reluctant to participate in the NATO war that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, and so passive and hesitant in playing a role in Libyan reconstruction, development, and security, that our ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound a year ago. The chief suspects in that attack remain at large. For over two years, America has watched confusedly as Egypt whipsaws between Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood, and General Sisi.

Via: WFB

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Summers Withdraws Name from Fed Consideration

Lawrence Summers, seen as President Barack Obama's first choice to replace Ben Bernake as chairman of the Federal Reserve, has taken his name out of the running, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Summers, who served as treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and as chairman of Obama's National Economic Council, called Obama Sunday to inform him of his decision. 

"I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interest of the Federal Reserve, the Administration or, ultimately, the interests of the nation's ongoing economic recovery," Summers wrote in a letter that followed Sunday's phone call, the Journal reported.

Summers' nomination has been opposed by liberals and women's groups over statements he has made while serving as president of Harvard University. He also has been opposed by Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee who see him as a symbol of the failures of financial regulation.

On accepting Summers' withdrawal, Obama described him as "a critical member of my team as we faced down the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and it was in no small part because of his expertise, wisdom, and leadership that we wrestled the economy back to growth and made the kind of progress we are seeing today," the Journal reported.
Via: Newsmax

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$2,472,542,000,000: Record Taxation Through August; Deficit Still $755B

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government raked in a record of approximately $2,472,542,000,000 in tax revenues through the first eleven months of fiscal 2013, which ran from Oct. 1, 2012 through the end of August, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for August.

That is up about $285 billion from the approximately $2,187,527,000,000 in taxes the government took in through August of fiscal 2012.

Despite these record tax revenues, the federal government still accumulated a $755 billion deficit in the first eleven months of fiscal 2013. Totally federal spending through the first eleven months of the fiscal year was $3.228 trillion.

At the end of last year, the president struck a deal with Republicans in Congress at the to enact legislation that increased taxes. This included pushing the top income tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, increasing the top tax rate on dividends and capital gains from 15 percent to 20 percent, and phasing out personal exemptions and deductions starting at an annual income level of $250,000.

Via: CNS News

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Barney Frank: We Lost Money on Obama's Auto Bailout But Made Money on Bush's Bank Bailout

Most of America’s media think President Obama's 2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler was a huge success.

Former Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Barney Frank threw cold water on this meme on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday correctly informing viewers that the auto bailout lost money for the federal government. By contrast, we made money from George W. Bush's 2008 bank bailout (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BARNEY FRANK, FORMER CONGRESSMAN (D-MASSACHUSETTS): First of all, many of the banks didn't want this money. It’s not that we did it for them. But secondly, the federal government made money on the advances to the banks. What cost us money was the automobile industry bailout. But we made money on the banks.

HENRY PAULSON, FORMER BUSH TREASURY SECRETARY: We got all the money back plus $32 billion.

Indeed. Meanwhile, the government’s investment in General Motors stock is still underwater.

Via: Newsbusters

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Obama: GOP Blocking My Efforts To Redistribute Wealth

The president has powers to fight income inequality, President Obama argued in an interview broadcast Sunday, adding that Republicans in Congress have hobbled his efforts to do it.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week" program, Obama acknowledged that the wealthiest Americans have benefited disproportionately from the economic recovery of recent years. But he was quick to add that much of that trend is due to globalization, technology and, not least, the GOP's opposition to his economic agenda – all factors he suggested are beyond his control.

"I think the president can stop it," Obama said, when asked about the growing income gap. "The problem is that there continues to be a major debate here in Washington, and that is, how do we respond to these underlying trends?"

Via: The Hill

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Australian election won’t deter U.S. carbon tax supporters

American carbon tax supporters are undeterred by Australian election results that were widely interpreted as a repudiation of the tax.

“We would say the Australian experiment shows precisely the wrong way to implement a carbon tax,” Ray Lehmann, spokesman for the R Street Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Simply laying a new tax on top of citizens’ existing burdens is never going to be either popular or economically productive.”

Conservatives contend that the Australian election should serve as a warning to U.S. policymakers who seek to impose such a tax on the carbon dioxide emissions at home.

“Australia is a great example of how not to do [a carbon tax]: not revenue-neutral, not coupled with regulatory and tax reform, and using a bad structure in cap-and-trade,” R Street’s Andrew Moylan said.

R Street bills itself as a group which supports “free markets; limited, effective government; and responsible environmental stewardship.” The group has been trying to muster up support for a $20 per ton carbon tax among conservatives, and contends that a carbon tax could be beneficial if coupled with regulatory and tax reform.

“I myself would certainly vote to repeal it were I an Australian MP or senator and would have voted Liberal0National were I a voter,” R Street’s president Eli Lehrer told TheDCNF.

Even liberal Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is not backing down from his support of a carbon tax in the aftermath of the Australian election.

The Daily Caller

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Backing Down On Syria Doesn’t Mean U.S. Won’t Strike Iran

President Obama declared that the United States is still prepared to act militarily to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons despite the decision to pursue a diplomatic deal and not strike Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons.

He also acknowledged that his approach to the Syria crisis has been uneven, but defended it as producing the right results.

Obama spoke in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” taped Friday before the United States and Russia agreed on a plan to bring Syrian chemical weapons under international control in order to avoid military strikes.

But Obama said Iran should not interpret the diplomatic response — coming after he threatened to use strikes — as suggesting that the United States wouldn’t attack Iran to stop the development of nuclear weapons.

“I think what the Iranians understand is that the nuclear issue is a far larger issue for us than the chemical weapons issue, that the threat . . . against Israel that a nuclear Iran poses is much closer to our core interests,” Obama said. “My suspicion is that the Iranians recognize they shouldn’t draw a lesson that we haven’t struck [Syria] to think we won’t strike Iran.”

Via: Washington Post

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Congress: Hillary’s Benghazi Investigation Let Top Officials Escape Blame

The State Department’s investigation into the Sept. 12, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was not independent and failed to hold senior State Department officials accountable for the failures that led to the death of four Americans, according to a new investigative report compiled by the House Oversight Committee.

The Administrative Review Board, chosen by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, unfairly placed the blame for the terrorist attack on four mid-level officials while ignoring the role of very senior officials in Clinton’s State Department for decisions about security in Benghazi, according to the new report led by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). Also, the structure of the ARB and the culture in Clinton’s State Department raised questions about the independence and integrity of the review, according to Issa’s committee.

“The ARB blamed systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies within two bureaus, but downplayed the importance of decisions made at senior levels of the Department. Witnesses questioned how much these decisions influenced the weaknesses that led to the inadequate security posture in Benghazi,” the report stated. “The ARB’s decision to cite certain officials as accountable for what happened in Benghazi appears to have been based on factors that had little or no connection to the security posture at U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya.”

Via: Daily Beast

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Rep. Diane Black: Weekly Republican Address Sunday, September 15, 2013

Obama Weekly Address September 14, 2013

President Barack Obama intends to publish a weekly video address every Saturday morning of his presidency.

• Weekly Address: Pursuing a Diplomatic Solution in Syria

  President Obama follows up on his speech to the nation on Tuesday and describes the possibility for a diplomatic solution in Syria, partially because of the credible threat of U.S. military force.
  Via: WhiteHouse.gov

Poll: 92% Of Unionized Federal Workers Don’t Want Obamacare…

Forbes cites a new survey of federal workers that reveals over 92% of them think they should be allowed to keep their current health care plans, instead of being forced into ObamaCare.  Less than 3% of them are eager to jump aboard the train-wreck ObamaCare exchanges that so many private workers are being forced into.  Also, 96% of them want federal retirees to keep their current insurance programs, instead of Medicare.

Of course, as the Forbes piece notes, these people belong to unions that were instrumental in giving Barack Obama the political support he needed to force his lousy health-care scheme on the rest of us.  And Congress is getting that sweet, sweet taxpayer subsidy it technically doesn't qualify for, forcing the taxpayer to pick up costs for representatives and staffers that private-sector employees have to pay out of their own pockets.

Every story about ObamaCare features another mass of American workers flung screaming into the public exchanges, which unionized workers and federal employees clearly regard as one of the lower circles of the Inferno, no matter what Administration propagandists are burning your tax money on advertising to tell you.  

So why not put the pedal to the metal, congressional Republicans?  If the public exchanges are so great, let's put every single damned federal worker into them.  Introduce legislation to abolish all federal health care plans.  Dump 100% of the massive government workforce into ObamaCare.  Let's hear what your charming friends across the aisle have to say about that.  Let's hear them explain why the train wreck is good enough for the rest of us, but not for government employees.

Via: Breitbart

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