Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Barbara Boxer faces ethics charge for asking teachers to get school children to campaign for her

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"As President Obama found out when he was forced to tone down what critics decried as the partisan content of a lesson plan he gave teachers to accompany a speech he was giving to students nationwide, the political input provided to schoolchildren remains a bitterly charged subject, as many parents desire to provide children their own take on often polarized issues."
"In a close election race against former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina, California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer is facing new ethics complaints over asking teachers to send their students to work for her campaign.

In an Oct. 27 letter to California education authorities, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), a non-profit group urging lower taxes, said,

  • “In abject ignorance of California state law, the political campaign of Senator Barbara Boxer has openly solicited teachers employed by [Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)] to urge their students to volunteer for her campaign.”

The HJTA letter refers to a letter obtained by the Flash Report, an influential California political blog, from the Boxer campaign that urges teachers to recruit their students to work for Boxer’s campaign.

As you may know, Senator Boxer is facing her toughest race yet,” the letter from Boxer says,

  • “please let us know if your students are able to help.”

Boxer’s campaign was unable to immediately comment on either its letter nor the HJTA’s letter.

  • HJTA’s letter cites a portion of California law governing teachers’ conduct which makes it illegal for teachers to solicit political support of students, including donations and volunteer work.

As President Obama found out when he was forced to tone down what critics decried as the partisan content of a lesson plan he gave teachers to accompany a speech he was giving to students nationwide, the political input provided to schoolchildren remains a bitterly charged subject,

via Free Republic
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In light of Obama defending deadly thugs at polling places, right of center citizens wish to observe-(Radical Left screams)

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Lacking elected representatives willing to safeguard polling places and machines, and with the Obama administration openly defending menacing thugs at voting places, ordinary citizens seek to observe them as neutral sites to the outrage of the left and Obama's DOJ
"The NYTimes and NPR response? Move along, nothing to see here…

Must-read and share: J. Christian Adams compiles a voter fraud watch primer. Like I said the other day (to great consternation from the Left): We are all voter fraud police now.

More cunningly, these organizations are seeking to marginalize complaints about election integrity

by casting citizen watchdog efforts as racist “scare tactics.” Echoing President Obama’s message to the

  • Democratic faithful on the campaign trail, they are accusing political opponents of suppressing the votes of minorities and the poor.

On Tuesday, The New York Times quoted a liberal voting rights advocate, Wendy R. Weiser, wringing her hands over individual Americans taking clean elections seriously:

Private efforts to police the polls create a real risk of vote suppression, regardless of their intent,” said Weiser, director of the Voting Rights and Elections Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “People need to know that any form of discrimination, intimidation or challenge to voters without adequate basis is illegal or improper.”

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV4bmx_xt-cy5yWdlClFk8grKSx_wR_9NQ5tCKQdkYAz0lkZ3mPQJHh2C1Ss2YRkZ_hP5Fer5U74A50MGsNNUNJ8vNJvCEAoZDg0bLICP7uNk67olGL2Gget1e6s_LsRNONYdjxw-pCEA/s1600/blackpanthersobamaelectiondayphilpolling.jpg

(Above at 2008 polling place is fine, per Obama.)

In North Carolina and Nevada, early voters have encountered ballot machine glitches that favor Democrats in hotly contested races.

  • In Troy, N.Y., and Daytona Beach, Fla., police investigations into suspected absentee ballot fraud by elected government officials are underway.

In Harris County, Texas, the voter registrar admitted that 20 percent of voter registration forms submitted by liberal activist Houston Votes had problems. Election whistleblowers from True the Vote are

  • now being investigated by the Obama Justice Department and have been slapped with an ethics complaint by the Texas Democratic Party and a
  • left-wing billionaire George Soros-funded group called Texans for Public Justice.

In Yuma County, Ariz., election officials denied any fraud associated with thousands of requests for “permanent early voter list” status submitted en masse by open-borders group Mi Familia Vota (a social justice satellite group of the Service Employees International Union). But election officials admitted that some 6,000 out of 14,000 requests fielded by the Yuma County Recorder’s Office “were reviewed and rejected, under Arizona law, either due to the fact the request was a duplicate or the requestor was not eligible to vote in this election or within the jurisdiction.”

Liberals shrugged their shoulders at reports of illegal alien canvassers trolling for votes in Washington State. Never mind the radical goals spelled out by SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer and Mi Familia Vota founder Eliseo Medina, who views illegal alien amnesty as a powerful Democratic recruitment tool to capture millions of new progressive voters.

Funny. For the past two years, Democratic leaders have had nothing to say about the militant New Black Panther Party goons who took it upon themselves to police a Philadelphia voting booth in 2008 wielding billy clubs and shouting anti-white slurs to suppress votes.

Now, they’re treating citizen election monitors as if they are the jack-booted thugs. When I lauded efforts like the Minnesota Majority, which is training volunteers to watch polls and report on voter fraud,

  • liberal critics accused me this week of “fascism.”

Silence dissent. Criminalize watchdogs. Whitewash fraud. Discourage grassroots engagement. Deny, deny, deny. These are the signature tactics of the left in the age of Obama. On November 2, Americans get their chance to say: Enough."


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People like those above observing elections are a danger to civilization per Obama and the radical left. (Obama ordered Swat team seen in rear to protect him from ladies like this earlier this year.)


Germany to make forced marriage a crime despite 'private nature', increased role for 'integration' ministry planned

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10/27, "Government takes aim at forced marriages," The Local, Germany's news in English

"The German cabinet on Wednesday backed several proposed changes to immigration laws including cracking down on forced marriages by making them a punishable offence
  • and offering better protection for victims.
The draft law from the Interior Ministry would define forced marriage as a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Current German law views such situations as a serious case of coercion....
the legal fight against forced marriages would remain a challenge.

Enforcement will also have certain difficulties in the future too,” she told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk,
  • adding that new policies could not change
  • the private nature of the issue.
The proposal also provides for the safe return of women taken abroad for these marriages, an addition that Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said was essential....
  • The cabinet discussion takes place after the immigration debate in Germany has become increasingly heated, and other topics on the agenda
include better regulation of required integration courses for new German residents and
  • the prevention of marriages of convenience."
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10/25, "Bohmer wants new integration ministry, The Local

"Germany’s integration commissioner, Maria Böhmer, has called on the government to set up a dedicated ministry to tackle the hot-button issue. Such a move would bring the federal government into line with many states who have already set up such central authorities, Böhmer on Monday.
  • “I believe it would be logical to have an integration ministry,” the conservative Christian Democrat told daily Hamburger Abendblatt. “The broad issue of immigration should be addressed in one department.”
Several of Germany’s federal states, including North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, have already taken this step and created a national conference of state integration ministers, she said.
  • “And communities are also strengthening the topic of integration politically,” she added.
Böhmer’s comments came in the midst of a bitter debate over immigration and integration in the country. In recent weeks several of her fellow conservatives, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have made controversial remarks about how multiculturalism has failed in Germany.
  • As the discussion becomes increasingly heated, Böhmer told the paper that integration and immigration
  • have become the issues of the future.
She also advocated improved recognition of attempts by immigrants to integrate and an increase in the number of naturalisations in Germany, saying that people who choose to live permanently in Germany should be willing and able to become citizens....
  • According to the integration commissioner, rules already exist that speed up the process of naturalisation for immigrants who prove to be well-integrated –
but officials often choose not to comply, she said.
  • “I am appealing to the immigration offices to use this rule,” she said. “The state must better recognise attempts at integration.”

via Lucianne.com

US home prices drop again in August "unexpectedly." Biggest drop, Phoenix....Arizona

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10/26, BBC, "US house prices dip again in August"

"Prices were down 0.3% versus the previous month, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to the Case-Shiller index of 20 major US cities.
  • The data - which is actually an average of house prices during June, July and August -

was lower than expected."...

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10/26, "US Home Prices Dip...Again," AP via CBS News

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10/26, "DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) home prices dip in disappointing month," Star-Telegram by Sandra Baker

  • "Dallas-Fort Worth was among a dozen major metropolitan areas in the U.S. to see home prices decline in August, according to Tuesday's Standard & Poors/Case Shiller home price index, a leading measure of U.S. home prices."...
####

10/25, "Birmingham home prices drop nearly 7%," Birmingham Business Journal, L. B. Cooper
  • "Statewide, home prices in Alabama fell 10.4 percent during August, including distressed sales, making it
  • the state with the second greatest depreciation."...

Democrats have raised at least $170 million more than Republicans even including so-called 'outside' groups--Politico, 10/26

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10/26, "Dems getting outspent? Not so fast," Politico,

"So far, the latest figures show that the Democratic Party machinery has outraised its Republican counterpart in this campaign cycle by almost $270 million.

  • And even when outside spending on television advertising and direct mail is added to the mix,
  • Republicans still haven’t closed the gap.

The money race totals come to $856 million for the Democratic committees and their aligned outside groups, compared to $677 for their Republican adversaries, based on

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Best comments from John Batchelor Show, Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square

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  • Not wishing to overly optimistic, one still liked hearing from JB's guests tonight (10/26):
"I'll be surprised if there's a democrat left anywhere in the south down through the Florida Keys."
"The Stock Market wants the Tea Party to come to the rescue of this country."
  • Larry Kudlow
photo Hard Rock Cafe Times Square from
JohnBatchelorShow.com

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Update, 2/7/11, John Batchelor's show has changed. Today he might consider comments like the above to be 'negative.' In other words, he has gone far left, whether on his own or at someone's instruction. I've documented this elsewhere and on this blog. ed.

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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

US all time worst record in domestic, public sector corruption under Obama- Reuters

"The United States has dropped out of the "top 20" in a global league table of least corrupt nations,

  • tarnished by financial scandals and the influence of money in politics, Transparency International said on Tuesday.

Somalia was judged the most corrupt country, followed by Myanmar and

Afghanistan at joint second-worst and then by Iraq, in the Berlin-based watchdog TI's annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).

the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index's 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20."...

10/26, UK Guardian: "Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is the world's most credible

The CPI scores countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption and 10, low levels. ...Unstable governments, often with a legacy of conflict, continue to dominate the bottom rungs of the CPI.

Afghanistan and Myanmar share second to last place with a score of 1.4, with Somalia coming in last with a score of 1.1."...

via Weasel Zippers


The Tea Party began brewing under George Bush

"It’s important that Democrats and Republicans alike understand this."...

via Hot Air