Agenda 21 Is Coming To A Neighborhood Near You

The website Democrats Against U. N. Agenda 21 does a wonderful job of explaining what is currently happening with Agenda 21 in America. The website explains exactly how the sovereignty of the United States and the freedom we are accustomed to are being threatened by Agenda 21.

The website reports:

But then you have UN Agenda 21.  What is it?  See our videos and radio shows at the bottom of this page (or search YouTube for Rosa Koire) or buy BEHIND THE GREEN MASK: U.N. Agenda 21 by Rosa Koire click here

Considering its policies are woven into all the General Plans of the cities and counties,  it’s important for people to know where these policies are coming from.  While many people support the United Nations for its peacemaking efforts, hardly anyone knows that they have very specific land use policies that they would like to see implemented in every city, county, state and nation.  The specific plan is called United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development, which has its basis in Communitarianism.  By now, most Americans have heard of sustainable development but are largely unaware of Agenda 21.

Please follow the link to the website to education yourself as to what Agenda 21 is and what is happening to the freedom of those who speak out against it. This is a bi-partisan issue–all of us need to pay attention and get involved.

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How Much Have You Heard About OCDETF ?

Andrew McCarthy was the man who led the prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (the “Blind Sheik”) after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. At that time he was the Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. His service as assistant United States attorney in that state gives him a unique and very insightful perspective on some of the more obscure aspects of operation Fast and Furious.

Mr. McCarthy posted an article today at the National Review Online with some insight into one aspect of the Fast and Furious operation that I had not been aware of.

The article reports:

OCDETF stands for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. It was created during the Reagan administration to throw the coordinated muscle of Justice’s component investigative agencies — especially the FBI and the DEA — at domestic and international organized crime, a scourge that had been dramatically exacerbated by unprecedented drug-trafficking millions.

I was working at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan at the dawn of OCDETF — which at DOJ is referred to as if it were a word, “Osedef.” In those days, with New York City both the notorious capital of La Cosa Nostra and the target market of Colombian drug cartels, I was fortunate to be assigned to some of the original “Osedef cases.”

The reason Mr. McCarthy brought up the existence of OCDETF is to illustrate how OCDETF cases (of which Operation Fast and Furious would have to be one for reasons explained in his article) involve a degree of communication and authorization in the Executive Branch of our government that ordinary Justice Department operations do not have.

Please read the entire article at National Review. It clearly explains the implications of Fast and Furious in relation to OCDETF.

Mr. McCarthy points out:

In fact, Fast and Furious was an OCDETF case. That made it a Main Justice case, not the orphan Arizona debacle of media portrayal.

…The website (DOJ Website) goes on to explain that the “OCDETF strategy” is implemented “under the direction of the Deputy Attorney General” — second in command to Holder at DOJ (and, in fact, the position Holder himself occupied in the Clinton/Reno Justice Department). With the coordinated effort of numerous investigative agencies and U.S. attorneys under Main Justice’s leadership, OCDETF is depicted as not only “disrupt[ing] the drug market” but “bolster[ing] law enforcement efforts in the fight against those terrorist groups supported by the drug trade.” Main Justice annually develops a “Regional Strategic Plan” for the country by requiring OCDETF participants to “identify major Regional Priority Organizational Targets.” And it has established an “OCDETF Fusion Center” as “the cornerstone” of its “intelligence-driven law enforcement, an essential component to the OCDETF program.”

The Fast and Furious controversy is not political–this operation was clearly well outside the authority of the Justice Department. Aside from the number of people who have died as a result of this operation, the risk of an international incident caused by this operation also has to be considered.

 

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Another Reason To Leave The United Nations

The Heritage Foundation posted an article today about the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The U.N. has released its press package for its July conference that will finalize the ATT.

The article reports:

This paper perpetuates the belief, on which much of the ATT is based, that the big problem the world faces is a lack of agreed standards on arms transfers. That’s wrong: The big problem the world faces in this regard is that many U.N. member states are dictatorships, supporters of terrorists, or simply incapable of controlling their own borders.

But the paper makes it clear that the job of the U.N.—as the U.N. itself sees it—is to make the case for a very broad treaty. As CASA puts it, “Advocacy efforts should be developed…through relevant reports and op-eds, messages, and statements at relevant meetings and to the press.” So watch out for U.S. taxpayer-funded funded U.N. propaganda in a newspaper near you.

The important sentence in the press kit:

But in spite of its desperate efforts to rebut Second Amendment concerns, the U.N. can’t stop stepping on its own shoelaces. After proclaiming that the ATT “does not aim to impede or interfere with the lawful ownership and use of weapons,” the CASA paper goes on to say that “United Nations agencies have come across many situations in which various types of conventional weapons have been…misused by lawful owners” and that the “arms trade must therefore be regulated in ways that would…minimize the risk of misuse of legally owned weapons.”

I don’t know what the chances of this treaty being ratified by the Senate are. I do know that President Obama has been named Salesman of the Year by many gun stores–private ownership of guns has soared during his administration. People are buying guns while it is still legal to own them.

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Another Stimulus Project Bites The Dust

The Washington Examiner reported yesterday that the partially stimulus-funded high speed rail project in California is essentially dead. The project fell victim to a combination of environmental lawsuits and federal deadlines for breaking ground on stimulus projects.

The article reports:

President Obama’s stimulus allocated $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, including, eventually, up to $3.5 billion for California’s project. However, according to the stimulus law, California must begin construction on the project before December 31, 2012 or they will not be eligible for any more high speed rail stimulus dollars. Obama’s Transportation Department reaffirmed this time limit last year when they admitted they had “no administrative authority to change this deadline.”

…Studies show that the average time to complete the NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) process is 6.1 years. And NEPA is designed to be a preventative statute. Federal courts routinely issue injunctions to stop projects before they ever begin. That is why oil companies preemptively sued environmental groups earlier this year over leases in Alaska. They wanted to get the litigation out of the way so they could begin oil exploration as fast as possible.

The California high-speed rail project was a bad idea from the start–it was not going to attract riders and was going to be a financial black hole for the already financially distressed state. It is, however, ironic that the thing that finally stopped the project was environmental red tape.

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What The Supreme Court Said Yesterday

Investors.com posted an article yesterday explaining the Supreme Court decision regarding the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). I will admit that when I first heard the ruling I did not understand exactly what was involved. I am grateful to Investors.com for their clear concise explanation.

The article explains:

In ruling that workers who choose not to be union members must be able to object immediately to unexpected fee increases or similar levies required of all employees in closed shops, the high court touched a nerve in the conflict between Big Labor and the right-to-work movement.

…The union’s gall in this specific case in underlined by the fact that it was taking money from nonmembers to defeat, in 2005, California’s Proposition 75, which would have prohibited the SEIU from using dues or fees for political contributions without employees’ written consent.

“Thus, the effect of the SEIU’s procedure was to force many nonmembers to subsidize a political effort designed to restrict their own rights,” Justice Samuel Alito noted.

There has been a lot of complaining from the left side of the political spectrum about the Citizen’s United ruling of the Supreme Court. That ruling prohibited the government from restricting spending either by corporations or unions. The left objected to the fact that corporations were now able to get into the election funding game. At least corporations are spending their own profits and are answerable to their stockholders. The use of union dues to fund political campaigns without the consent of those paying the dues is questionable at best. At least now non-union members have some control over the money they are asked to pay the unions.

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Why Is This Taking So Long ?

Lying before Congress is a serious matter. We were just treated to the spectacle of Roger Clemens being dragged before Congress because he was accused of lying. If lying about drug use is important enough for Congress to challenge, why isn’t lying about matters that impact international relations and result in the death of Americans important?

The investigation into Operation Fast and Furious is not a witch hunt. It is not, as Nancy Pelosi says, about voting rights (hotair) or about racism–it is about lying to Congress. In October of 2011, The Heritage Foundation quoted a CBS report showing Department of Justice memos indicating that Attorney General Holder was briefed on Fast and Furious in July 2010. In May 2011, Eric Holder testified to Congress that he had just learned about Fast and Furious “in the past few weeks.”

On June 20, The Blaze reported:

In a second major retraction over its version of the the gun-walking scandal, the Justice Department has retracted Attorney General Eric Holder’s charge in a hearing last week that his Bush administration predecessor had been briefed on the affair.

In a memo just released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa senator reveals that Holder also didn’t apologize to former Attorney General Michael Mukasey for dragging him into the Fast & Furious scandal that is headed for a major legal clash and likely contempt of Congress charge against Holder.

According to Grassley’s memo, Justice said that Holder “inadvertently” made the charge against Mukasey in a hearing.

A few obvious facts in this entire mess. Executive privilege is somewhat like the Fifth Amendment–you can’t testify a little bit and then claim it–it needs to be claimed at the beginning of the testimony. Executive privilege does not apply unless the ‘executive’ was involved in some way.

There are a number of possible outcomes of this scandal. The White House (and Justice Department) could suddenly decide to release everything and show that there is no smoking gun–it was all a political ploy to make the Republicans look bad. Or, what I consider the more likely scenario, the stonewalling continues until after the election and when the smoking gun is revealed, it is a moot point.

The Eric Holder Justice Department is a political organization–it’s not supposed to be, but it is. This was shown in the New Black Panther case on voter intimidation early in the Obama Administration. There were YouTube videos showing voter intimidation, and the case was dropped. This Justice Department has set a very bad precedent for the future of America. If the Justice Department is not forced to obey the laws it is supposed to enforce, then Americans are no longer equal in the eyes of the law. Some Americans are now more equal than others.

 

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What Are Our Children Learning In College ?

Last night in Stoughton, Massachusetts, I had the privilege of hearing a presentation by Professor Tammi Rossman-Benjamin of the University of California Santa Cruz. The presentation was entitled, “Combating anti-Semitism on University Campuses and Beyond.” Over the years I have been aware of what I thought were occasional incidents of anti-Semitism at American universities, but I had no idea how widespread the problem was or what the focus of the anti-Semitism is.

Professor Rossman-Benjamin pointed out that there are two basic forms of anti-Semitism on our college campuses–the bullying, intimidation, and name-calling directed at individual Jewish students and the attempt (often supported by professors) to delegitimize Israel. The second sometimes takes the form of petitions that universities divest themselves of any investments in Israel.

One of the sources of the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment is a group called the Muslim Students’ Association (a group with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood).

Last night was an eye-opening evening. As someone whose children graduated from college more than ten years ago, I am not aware of what is going on at our colleges. This was an education.

One of the things not mentioned directly last night, but that to me is a representation of where our educational system (and the concept of respecting all people) has gone, is a YouTube video taken during a speech given by David Horowitz during “Israel Apartheid Week at the University of California San Diego in 2010. Horowitz was hosted by Young Americans for Freedom. Please watch the entire video and listen to the question at the end:

 

This should not be happening on our college campuses. 

 

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Protecting The Property Rights Of Americans

The Blaze is reporting today that Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have introduced legislation to limit the government’s power of eminent domain, the seizure of private property without the owner’s consent. This is the link to the actual legislation introduced.

The law, The Protection of Homes, Small Businesses and Private Property Act of 2012, coincides with the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kelo v. the City of New London, which allowed the City of New London to arbitrarily take private property from one person and give it to another with the intent of increasing the city’s tax base.

On December 1, 2009, I reported on the outcome of that property seizure (rightwinggranny.com):

So let’s look at where we are now.  The taking of the property was used to lure Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company to New London to build a research center.  Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company arrived, built its New London research center on the seized property, and this week announced that it was closing the plant.  Most of the plants 1,400 employees will be relocated to nearby Groton. 

Now the City of New London won’t even have the tax revenue from the people who once lived in that area of New London.  They will simply have a vacant research center.  Poetic justice at its best.

The Supreme Court made the wrong decision in Kelo–they seriously undermined the property rights of Americans. Please follow the link above to the article at The Blaze to read about recent misuses of eminent domain. Thank goodness for Senators like John Cornyn and Rand Paul who are willing to stand up for individual property rights.

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Sometimes You Just Wonder Why People Say Things…

Yesterday the Daily Caller posted a quote from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi about the ongoing saga of Fast and Furious.

The article reports:

I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day,” Pelosi said on Wednesday, The Huffington Post reports. “I’m not kidding. There’s a prison here in the Capitol. If we had spotted him in the Capitol, we could have arrested him.”

“Oh, any number” of charges could have been brought against Rove, Pelosi said. “But there were some specific ones for his being in contempt of Congress.”

What in the world does Karl Rove have to do with anything? Karl Rove was a senior policy advisor to George W. Bush–similar to the role that Valerie Jarrett or David Axelrod plays in the Obama Administration. Eric Holder is the Attorney General–he is the chief law enforcement officer in the country.

Someday I will understand why the left is so obsessed with Karl Rove. Somehow my husband got on the mailing list for donations to the Democrat party–almost every fund raising request has Karl Rove’s name on it. It would be so much more constructive to talk about issues. It really doesn’t matter whether Ms. Pelosi could have arrested Karl Rove. It does matter if Eric Holder abused his power in Fast and Furious. Congress needs to be able to find out what happened. The cover-up of Fast and Furious looks more and more like Watergate every day–only the media hasn’t bothered to focus on it as they focused on Watergate.

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The Most Peaceful Country In The World

At the top of this blog is a picture taken in the country designated by the Institute for Economics and Peace (calculated according to the Global Peace Index) as the most peaceful country in the world.

Time News Feed posted an article on Monday stating that Iceland in the most peaceful country in the world–followed by Denmark and New Zealand. In reading the article, I wondered about the politics of the organization rating the peacefulness of countries. It seems as if social welfare states ranked higher than countries whose fiscal policies were more conservative.

At any rate, Iceland is a beautiful, peaceful country. I would like to note that the frequency of alcoholism in Iceland has been estimated to be in the range of 3.5-6.3% (statistics from the Icelandic National Health Plan to the Year 2010). In America it is about 6.6 % (2005 statistics from the drugrehab.org).

I guess my problem with reading this was wondering what the definition and criteria for the concept of peace were. Iceland is beautiful. I also wonder if there is a different temperament in people living in extremely cold climates than people living in very warm climates. There is so much that could influence the choice of ‘the most peaceful country in the world’ that is totally subjective that I question the conclusion drawn.

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Crime Rates Have Fallen–President Obama Is Responsible

No, the headline is not a joke. Crime rates have fallen, and President Obama is responsible. Why? Because President Obama is responsible for a major increase in gun purchases and gun ownership in America. What? Statistically it has been proven that when private gun ownership goes up, violent crime goes down. In plain English–criminals are a little more careful about attacking people in areas where concealed carry permits are issued and the victims may protect themselves.

On Monday the Washington Times posted an article explaining the relationship between the increase in private gun ownership and the decrease in violent crime.

The article quotes a National Rifle Association spokesman on the relationship between increased gun ownership and decreased crime:

“This is not a one-year anomaly, but a steady decline in the FBI’s violent-crime rates,” said Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association. “It would be disingenuous for anyone to not credit increased self-defense laws to account for this decline.”

Mr. Arulanandam pointed out that only a handful of states had concealed-carry programs 25 years ago, when the violent-crime rate peaked. Today, 41 states either allow carrying without a permit or have “shall issue” laws that make it easy for just about any noncriminal to get a permit. Illinois and Washington, D.C., are the only places that refuse to recognize the right to bear arms. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence did not respond to requests for comment.

The article draws a wonderful conclusion:

Mr. Obama could honestly take credit for this jobs program, economic boost and the reduction in violent crime that has followed the spike in gun ownership on his watch. Instead, he’s silent about his greatest positive accomplishment.

Sometimes the facts just get in the way of the politics!

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Pulling The Plug On An Unacceptable Idea

The Daily Caller posted an article today stating that the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies has not included any money in its 2013 fiscal year appropriations bill to fund the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission (EMC).

The article reports:

Opposition to the memorial has been spearheaded by the National Civic Art Society (NCAS) — a nonprofit devoted to upholding and promoting Western ideals of classical beauty in art and architecture. NCAS has criticized the “secretive, elitist, and undemocratic” memorial design competition, pointing out that the competition considered 44 entries whereas the National World War II Memorial considered 407.

NCAS has also criticized the memorial’s proposed design, which the society called an “impious, soulless design … [that] suggests nothing noble or heroic” and “represents a fundamental cleavage with the tradition of national presidential memorials.”

The planned memorial focused on President Eisenhower’s boyhood in Kansas. There was no recognition of the accomplishments of the man as a General and as a President. I was born after World War II, so my appreciation of General Eisenhower came mainly from history books.  But it also came from being the daughter of one of the men under his command on June 6, 1944. My father was not a career military man–he graduated from Clemson in 1942 and went into the army as a second lieutenant. He resigned his commission after the war. He was one of the men who landed in France on D-Day. Even though his generation said very little about their war experiences, it was always clear that he had a tremendous amount of respect for General Eisenhower. The General deserves a memorial that reflects the respect that the men who followed him into battle and the Americans who supported him as President had for him.

I am glad to see the memorial as it is presently planned defunded.

 
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How Much Are We Actually Spending On Food Stamps ?

The chart below was posted yesterday at Power Line Blog:

The chart was posted as part of an article on recent Congressional activity regarding the Food Stamps Program. Power Line reports:

So Senator Jeff Sessions tried to introduce a minimal amount of fiscal discipline into the food stamp program by offering amendments that incorporated two basic reforms: 1) preventing states from waiving federal eligibility requirements for the program, and 2) eliminating the bonuses that the federal government now pays to states that deliberately swell the ranks of food stamp recipients. Given that the federal government pays 100% of the program’s cost, such bonuses create perverse incentives in the states, with predictable consequences. And at least 28 states have no limit whatsoever on the financial assets a household can have, and still qualify for food stamps.

One might think that a government running trillion-dollar-plus annual deficits would take common-sense reforms like those proposed by Senator Sessions to heart, but no: the Democrats voted them down. The prefer the irresponsible, free-spending status quo.

Technically the House of Representatives is supposed to be in charge of spending, but unfortunately, the Senate is so totally out of control, there is no hope for slowing the runaway spending. The Democrats in the Senate have refused to pass a budget for more than 1000 days. It’s time for a new Senate.

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Sometimes It Takes A Lot Of Digging To Find The Truth

There are two sources for this article–Andrew McCarthy today at PJMedia  and a Washington Times article also posted today.

Yesterday President Obama asserted executive privilege in refusing to allow the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to see the documents they have requested regarding Operation Fast and Furious.

The article at PJMedia quotes the Wall Street Journal‘s description of the Obama Administration’s narrative on Fast and Furious:

 The gun-walking tactics in Fast and Furious turned up in earlier ATF cases, during the Bush administration. When they were uncovered by Justice officials in the Obama administration, a top Justice official raised concerns with ATF officials, according to Justice documents released last year. But the officials never alerted Mr. Holder, didn’t do enough to prevent similar cases and weren’t aware the operation was under way until months later, according to Justice documents.

Mr. Holder, in a letter last week to Mr. Issa, said, “The record in this matter reflects that until allegations about the inappropriate tactics used in Fast and Furious were made public, department leadership was unaware of those tactics.”

I’m waiting for someone to stand up and say, “I didn’t know the guns were loaded.” Unfortunately, the Obama Administration’s narrative has a few problems–Andrew McCarthy points out that there were wiretaps involved in Fast and Furious. Under law, wiretaps have to approved directly by the Attorney General or his appointee. If the Attorney General approved the wiretaps, how come he didn’t know anything about Fast and Furious?

The Washington Times reports:

Mr. Boehner’s press secretary, Brendan Buck, said that until now “everyone believed that the decisions regarding Fast and Furious were confined to the Department of Justice. The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the Fast and Furious operation or the cover-up that followed.

“The administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?” he asked.

“This is a very sad day for the United States of America,” said Rep. John L. Mica, Florida Republican, concerning the president’s assertion of executive privilege. “There is no way this committee is not entitled to these documents.”

As in most Washington scandals, it seems as if one of the major problems with Operation Fast and Furious is going to be the cover-up. A border patrol officer was killed with a weapon that Fast and Furious allowed to be sold and send to Mexico. That alone should be enough for Congress to get any information it asks for in order to ascertain exactly what happened.

I strongly suggest that you follow the links above to PJMedia and the Washington Times to read the entire stories. This is a serious scandal that has been misreported and under-reported in the major media.

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Calling For Sunlight

Today’s Boston Herald posted an article about the Cape Wind Farm Project and the lack of transparency in the approval process.

The article reports:

In a letter provided to the Herald, the alliance cited a trove of bombshell internal Federal Aviation Administration emails that suggest the agency buckled to political pressure and downplayed fears that the 440-foot tall spinning turbines would interfere with radar and ensnare small, low-flying aircraft.

The Herald reported Saturday that FAA documents obtained by Parker’s group through a public records request contain repeated references to political support for the proposed 130-turbine project five miles offshore of Cape Cod.

“You’ve got a very clear green agenda from the Obama administration, and very clear agenda from the Patrick administration, wanting to have America’s first offshore wind farm, seemingly at the expense of public safety,” Parker has told the Herald. “It’s like offshore wind at any cost.”

The article and the comments remind us of some of the problems with the Cape Wind Farm Project. Aside from the question of whether political pressure played a part in its approval, there is the fact that it will raise the cost of electricity significantly for Massachusetts residents. There is also the fact that the life of a wind turbine is approximately 25 years before it will need to be removed. What a mess! This will never be a practical project–it will never save consumers money, and we will still need carbon-based back-up electricity to ensure that Massachusetts residents have electric power 24 hours a day! It would make much more sense to refine the technology for natural-gas generated electricity (which is extremely environmentally friendly) and save consumers money and generate jobs in America (America is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas).

Man has been looking for the perpetual motion machine since the beginning of time (that is one of the few things I remember from high school physics!). Green energy is simply another reflection of that quest. At some point in the future, there may be viable green energy, but the government will accomplish nothing by forcing the issue!

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Wednesday Night In Stoughton Massachusetts

Ahavath Torah Congregation
1179 Central Street

 Ahavath Torah Congregation’s Hausman Memorial Speakers’ Series Presents:

 
Combating anti-Semitism on University Campuses and Beyond
 
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin

Wednesday June 20, 7:30 PM


Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a lecturer at the UC/Santa Cruz, is changing the conditions throughout the UC system almost single-handedly with her force of intellect and courage. She has written articles about academic anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and lectured widely on these developments and on the growing threat to the safety of Jewish students on college campuses.
  • In July 2010, she co-organized a 2-week scholarly workshop entitled “Contemporary Antisemitism in Higher Education” at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies in Washington D.C., and with Kenneth Marcus, the workshop’s other coorganizer, she is editing a book of scholarly articles on campus-based anti-Semitism.
  • Along with Dr. Leila Beckwith, she is the co-founder of the AMCHA Initiative, a grass-roots advocacy coalition dedicated to protecting Jewish students on university campuses within California. She and Dr.Beckwith also recently co-founded the Investigative Taskforce on Campus Antisemitism, an organization whose mission is to investigate and report incidents of antisemitism that occur in institutions of higher education in the United States, to document their effect on students, faculty, and staff, and to offer recommendations for addressing the problem on each campus investigated.
  • In 2009, she filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, alleging a hostile environment for Jewish students on her campus, and in March 2011 a federal investigation of her complaint was launched and is still pending.
 
$10 suggested donation for each event
 
Bring your electric bill and sign up for Just Energy by Momentis and come as our guest for that program.
 
For further information email office@atorah.org
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When The Perfect Life Isn’t Perfect

Katrina Trinko posted an article today at National Review Online about Ann Romney‘s battle with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Please follow the link above to read the entire article–it is inspiring. But there’s an aspect of this story. From the outside looking in, Ann Romney has led a storybook life–she has a successful husband, handsome, successful sons, a wonderful family, financial success, etc. But how do you handle it when your storybook life comes crashing down and you can’t even physically handle even basic household chores?

The story of Ann Romney should cause all of us to stop and realize how blessed we are. We may not have a storybook life, but we have our own story and we have our own gifts and treasures that God has given us. We need to remember when we see Ann Romney portrayed as having lived a privileged life, that she has faced challenges that would have defeated many of us. Ann Romney is a lady of courage who I believe would make a wonderful First Lady

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When The Numbers Don’t Work, Change The Rules

Yesterday the Daily Caller posted an article which shows why all of us need to be very careful what we believe during an election year. The article has to do with the current number of government limousines.

The article reports: 

Last year, the GSA estimated the number of government agency limousines at 412, amounting to a 73 percent increase between 2008 and 2010, according to iWatch News.

Needless to say, in a time when most of us are cutting back on household spending due to a weak economy, these numbers do not look good. So what did the government do? They redefined what a limousine is. Why not?

The article further reports:

Two months after the rise was reported in May 2011, the GSA changed the definition of “limousine” to exclude such vehicles as shuttle buses and sedans, previously classified as limos.

When the GSA released its 2011 fleet report last month, limos were shown to have decreased 62 percent to only 158, iWatch reported.

The State Department, under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, reduced its limo count the most, to just 50 after reporting 259 in 2010.

In releasing the 2010 fleet report, GSA officials admitted the limo numbers in the report were not reliable, according to iWatch.

This is amazing. GSA reports have now become a political tool.

 
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Keep Your Hands Off My Sprite !

The Policy Order Resolution below is taken directly from the Cambridge, Massachusetts, website.

Policy Order Resolution  
  O-4
  IN CITY COUNCIL
  June 18, 2012
MAYOR DAVIS
WHEREAS: High intake of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of obesity and diabetes; and
   
WHEREAS: New York City has a plan to limit the serving size of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages sold in restaurants; now therefore be it
      
ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to refer the matter of a ban on soda and sugar-sweetened beverages in restaurants to the Cambridge Public Health Department for a recommendation. 
    

 

 

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Some Major West Virginia Democrats Will Not Attend The Democrat National Convention

The National Journal reported yesterday that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, Representative Nick Rahall and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin will not be part of the West Virginia delegation to the Democrat Convention in Charlotte in September.

The article reports:

“I intend to spend this fall focused on the people of West Virginia, whether that’s representing them in my official U.S. Senate duties or here at home, where I can hear about their concerns and ideas to solve the problems of this great nation,” Manchin said in a statement. “I will remain focused on bringing people together for the next generation, not the next election.”

President Obama’s policies toward coal are very damaging to West Virginia, which has an economy based on coal production.

As Breitbart.com reported earlier this month:

President Obama wants to steer electricity generation away from coal to natural gas. The only problem with that is our system is set up for coal, coal is abundant and coal is easier to get. While the market may naturally gravitate to natural gas as it becomes easier to get through fracking, something the Left has demonized and is fighting, we’re not there yet.

This is a definite threat to the economy of West Virginia, and the leaders of West Virginia are correct in taking that threat seriously. Part of their responsibility as state officials is to protect the welfare of their state. It is totally understandable that the leaders of West Virginia will not be at the Democrat Conventions. It is also interesting to read the comments at the bottom of the article at the National Journal. It is also a good idea when you read comments on news articles that campaigns have people whose only job is to comment on articles that mention some aspect of the campaign.

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Taxes Really Do Influence Behavior

Breitbart.com posted an article today about the impact of an upcoming tax increase on cigarettes in Illinois scheduled to take affect later this month. On June 24, the tax on a pack of cigarettes will increase by $1. Some convenience stores are running low on cigarettes because customers who usually come in to buy one carton are currently buying two or three in order to save the $20 or $40 dollars.

The article reports:

As NBC Chicago reports, a Cook County, Illinois, cigarette tax hike earlier this year is to blame for an alleged 15 to 20 percent drop in business at one Illinois tobacco retailer, adding that Indiana sellers could substantially gain from the latest increase:

“After March 1 when Cook County raised their taxes, I lost about–between 15 to 20 percent of my business,” Illinois tobacco shop owner Jawad Muqeet said. “The prices are so high nobody wants to buy cigarettes in downtown”

Indiana tobacco sellers could gain from the this increase. Hammond smoke shop owner Roni Patel says a carton of Marlboro cigarettes costs $56 on average in Indiana, compared to $50 in Will County, Illinois. He says the average price per carton in Will County will raise to $61 following the tax increase, expected to go into effect June 24.

Behavior that is heavily taxed decreases; behavior that is subsidized increases.

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Something Good Was Done In Washington Today

When I look at that headline, I am reminded of all the admonitions to reporters, “If a dog bites a man, it’s not a story, if a man bites a dog, it’s a story.” However, something good was done in Washington recently.

The Hill is reporting today that John Boehner and Senator Joe Lieberman have announced that a deal has been reached to implement a renewal and expansion of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program.

The article reports:

The private school voucher initiative in the nation’s capital is a top priority of Boehner’s, and the agreement comes after the Speaker and Lieberman complained that President Obama’s decision to zero out funding for the program in his latest budget contradicted a law he signed in 2011. Boehner had successfully attached legislation extending and expanding the scholarships to a government funding accord last year.

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program has been a fantastic program for the city. It has allowed children from low-income families who would be at risk in the public schools in Washington, D. C., to get the education they need to be successful.

The article reports:

Under the agreement Boehner announced, there will be no cap on enrollment, and the program will remain open to both new and current applicants.

Bi-partisanship works when the issue is valid!

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Some Negative Consequences Of The Arab Spring

As much as many people would like to see democracy come to Egypt, it doesn’t seem as if the situation is headed in that direction. Aside from the political tension in Egypt between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood, there is another aspect of the impact of the revolution in Egypt.

The BBC is reporting today that there has been a deadly attack in Israel on the border with Egypt that has killed on construction worker and injured another. The construction workers were building a fence along the Israeli Egyptian border.

The article reports:

Israeli officials said at least three gunmen had opened fire at the convoy of vehicles and also detonated an explosive device.

“A terrorist squad opened gunfire and possibly also fired an anti-tank rocket at an area where [Israel] is constructing the border fence,” Israeli military spokesman Yoav Mordechai told army radio.

“Soldiers arrived on the scene and killed one terrorist.”

They said that a second militant had been killed when the explosive device he was carrying detonated and the body of a third was found at the scene.

He said that those targeted were workers completing the border fence.

The workman who died was an Arab citizen of Israel, according to Reuters news agency.

The entire border area, including a major road near the coastal resort town of Eilat, was closed for a few hours after the attack and roadblocks were set up.

Military officials said they believed other militants involved in the attack had escaped back across the border into Egypt.

During Mubarak’s time, the border between Israel and Egypt was kept relatively secure. There were tunnels, but generally the border was not a staging area for terrorist activity in Israel. Since the fall of Mubarak, the border has been used for a number of terrorist attacks against Israel. The so-called Arab Spring will not bring either peace, democracy, or freedom to the Middle East.

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A Mixed Blessing

I am the first one to admit that the American immigration policy does not work. It is too long, expensive and cumbersome for those people trying to come here legally, and it does not successfully deal with those who come here illegally just to find a way to earn a living. However, it is unfortunate that because of the politics of an election year, decisions regarding immigration are being made on a political basis rather than a practical basis.

On Friday the Washington Post posted an article about the impact the changes President Obama has announced to the immigration law will have on the unemployment rate of Americans.

The article reports:

“I see a tidal wave coming,” said Brad Botwin, president of Help Save Maryland, a group that opposes legalization for undocumented immigrants. “Half of our college graduates today can’t find jobs, and the unemployment rate for high-school-aged Americans is extremely high. This is unfair to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who are out there struggling to get ahead.

He does have a point. One of the reasons for the change is the belief that by putting these workers on the books instead of under the table, new tax revenue will be generated. That may be true, but if the illegals immigrants with work permits are taking jobs from Americans and legal immigrants, what have we actually accomplished?

The article concludes:

But Steven Camarota, a researcher with the nonprofit Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said that the Obama administration was not taking into account the new measure’s probable impact on competition for jobs at the low end of the economic scale, where chronic unemployment is highest. Among Americans with less than a high school education, he said, the jobless rate is 13 percent.

“It doesn’t seem the administration is considering the cascading consequences,” Camarota said. “What does this mean for unemployed Americans who will be competing for jobs with a million-plus people who can now apply for work authorization? Is this really a good idea?”

This was a political decision–not a practical one. What we need is for Congress to get along long enough to come up with a practical, legal solution to immigration. That solution should include cutting the red tape for those who want to come here legally (and shortening the length of time it takes to come here legally) and finding a fair way to deal with those who are here illegally through no decision of their own.

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British Special Forces In Iraq

The U.K. Mail Online posted a story yesterday about the work of the British Special Air Service (the equivalent of American Special Forces) in bringing down two of the nastiest Al Qaeda leaders in Iraq in 2008.

Please follow the link to the article and read the entire story–it is fascinating. It combines good old fashioned detective work with undercover work and infiltration into the den of the lions.

Some of the story:

Until today the true extent of the Al Qaeda men’s murderous influence has never been revealed and neither has the extraordinary story of how they were eventually stopped.

The Mail on Sunday can disclose that it was not US special forces who finally killed Rami and captured Uthman – as was reported at the time by The Washington Post – but the SAS.

How they did so was typical of the cool efficiency for which    the regiment is renowned.

Both operations were also smart, subtle and meticulously planned, using hi-tech ingenuity. Perhaps most of all, though, they were less obvious than those of their American counterparts.

The missions took place during the SAS ‘D’ squadron’s six-month tour of Baghdad in the second half of 2008, a time when car bombers were wreaking carnage in the capital.

Documents seen by this newspaper – accounts of the tour by the regiment’s senior officers – suggest the SAS was helped by a controversial set of ‘legal freedoms’ permitting the detainment of any individual, even without  evidence to justify their captivity.

I love the British perspective. We Americans are so unsubtle!

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