President Obama stated at Morehouse, “We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years, is there’s no longer any room for excuses.”

President Obama interjected himself into the Zimmerman case when he said that if he had a son he would “look like Trayvon”.

Clash Daily reports, “State prosecutors in the case against George Zimmerman are pushing to keep Zimmerman’s attorneys from bringing testimony about Trayvon Martin’s past during the trial.”

Screen capture from Trayvon Martin’s social media site

“The state said in motions filed on Friday they want to prevent Zimmerman’s attorneys from bringing up Martin’s personal life, including his school records, previous suspension from school, fights, text messages sent prior to his death unless related to case and his social media use. The motion also says the state wants to prevent the defense from using Martin’s toxicology report, which showed the level of marijuana in Martin’s blood the night he was shot and killed,” notes Clash Daily.

Yahoo News reports:

George Zimmerman has waived his right to a pretrial hearing over whether he should be acquitted of murder charges under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.

Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who’s charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, said Tuesday in court that he did not want the preliminary hearing, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The surprising move by Zimmerman’s legal team means the controversial case will go straight to trial in early June.

Zimmerman had the right under Florida’s 7-year-old “stand your ground” law to argue to the judge in a special hearing without a jury that he’s immune from both civil and criminal prosecution. The law,versions of which are on the books in 20 states, says people who have a reasonable belief their lives are in danger in a public place can harm an attacker without first attempting to retreat.

The 29-year-old says he acted in self defense when Martin attacked him on Feb. 26, 2012. Prosecutors say Zimmerman profiled Martin, pursuing him around the neighborhood, and then confronting and killing him with his gun.

This Florida case grabbed national political and media attention when first reported. Some Sanford residents say the Zimmerman case reflects a larger issue of black profiling by local police.

Governor Rick Scott commissioned a task force to review Florida’s stand your ground law. According to the Miami-Herald, “A 19-member task force commissioned by Gov. Rick Scott to review Florida’s Stand Your Ground law has put out its final report, largely voicing support for the law. The task force made a handful of recommendations for the Legislature, but began the report by stating that, at its core, the self-defense law is fine as it is.”

In May 2012, the Daily Caller noted that “The Congressional Research Service estimates that since 2008 the federal government has spent nearly $70 billion on ‘climate change activities.’” The leading critic in Congress, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) asked at the time, “Which would you rather have? Would you rather spend $4 billion on Air Force base solar panels, or would you rather have 28 new F-22s or 30 F-25s or modernized C-130s?”

“Would you rather have $64.8 billion spent on pointless global warming efforts or would you rather have more funds put toward modernizing our fleet of ships, aircraft and ground vehicles to improve the safety of our troops and help defend the nation against the legitimate threats that we face?’

On May 9th, I received an email from Friends of the Earth that repeated all the lies we have heard for years. Painting with a very broad brush that completely ignores the fact that the U.S. climate has always had highs and lows of temperature, FOE complained that “Last year the U.S. experienced record-breaking weather all over the country. But, the nightly news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC barely talked about what was fueling this extreme weather—climate change.”

What FOE failed to mention was a record that was set in 2012-13; as of May, according to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, the U.S. had its longest stretch in recorded history—2,750 days—without a major hurricane landfall. The many claims of “extreme” weather are classic fear-mongering. I might also add that, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, the number of wildfires is at a ten-year low. Glaciers are not melting and seas are not rising, unless a millimeter or two worries you.

“Climate change” is the replacement name for “global warming.” Climate is measured in centuries. The weather is whatever is happening anywhere in the nation on any given day. Around the world, however, there has been a significant increase in cold weather and many are still waiting for spring to arrive.

Typical of the hyperbole that is representative of the lies we have heard from so-called environmental organizations, FOE fumed that “the nightly news programs at the major broadcast networks have largely ignored what is fueling this extreme weather—climate change.” Citing a Media Matters for America study, FOE noted that “ABC’s nightly news program did only one segment about climate change last year. Meanwhile NBC’s news show did only four and CBS just seven segments to this critical issue.” Perhaps this is because these notably liberal news organizations have concluded it is not a critical issue?

It gets better, FOE was angry, saying “What’s almost worse is that when these networks have covered global warming, they have often treated climate change as a ‘two-sided debate’ rather than what it really is; an issue in which there is overwhelming scientific consensus.” These are people who do not want to have a debate because, based on the facts, they would lose. As for scientific consensus regarding either global warming or climate change, there is NONE. If anything, leading scientists around the world have been debunking global warming now for years.

One of the leading think tanks in the effort to end the global warming hoax has been The Heartland Institute. It has sponsored several international conferences in which scientists and others have offered papers and addressed the topic. I recommend you subscribe to its national monthly, Environmental & Climate News. Its Managing Editor, James M. Taylor, J.D., provides the latest information on the environmental organizations greatest villain, carbon dioxide (CO2).

Two recent dispatches by Taylor noted in one that “Climate models supporting predictions of rapid global warming during the next century have performed miserably predicting global temperatures during the past two decades”, citing a comparison of computer model predictions and real-world temperatures by climate scientist Roy W. Spencer. In another, Taylor noted that “New data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, but global temperatures are not following suit. The new data undercut assertions that atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing a global warming crisis.”

Undismayed by the facts, FOE could only cite the taxpayer-funded PBS News Hour that “devoted 23 segments to covering climate change.” When the President is telling everyone that the climate is the greatest threat to the nation, PBS bureaucrats who know where the money comes from can be depended upon to broadcast his lies.

Ironically, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion by Harrison H. Schmitt and William Happer on the same day the FOE email arrived. It was titled “In Defense of Carbon Dioxide.” Schmitt was an Apollo 17 astronaut and a former U.S. Senator from New Mexico. He is an adjunct professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Happer is a professor of physics at Princeton University and a former director of the office of energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy.

“The cessation of observed global warming for the past decade or so has shown how exaggerated NASA’s and most other computer predictions of human-caused warming have been—and how little correlation warming has with concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide.”

No wonder FOE is upset that even the mainstream media networks no longer want to report on a global warming that does not exist. There’s real science and there’s the fulminations and lies of Friends of the Earth.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

Before the election of Marco Rubio to the US Senate many saw him as the man to carry to Washington, D.C. the conservative principles that he spoke about so passionately during his campaign. He was seen as a man whose background, ideas and ideals were just what was needed to push back against the progressive agendas of more taxation, bigger government, immigration reform and a do nothing foreign policy. For many the hope was he would set things straight in the US Senate. For Conservatives that hope has now become hype.

Conservative Floridians have now become disillusioned.

WDW has reported on how this happened. Some blame staff, some blame the influence on Rubio by Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham and others the go along to get along and get reelected siren call of lobbyists. Marco was a man of principle but then he decided to go on a different path than what he said during his campaign say many.

Marco Rubio is now viewed as the consummate politician. However, he can redeem himself, there is time left according to some. The immigration bill is a disaster and is the primary cause of his fall from grace. Will he go down with the immigration bill? That is the question.

RELATED COLUMNS:

Zuckerberg And Rubio: Amnesty’s Two Indistinguishable Amigos

Center for Immigration Studies calls Rubio’s amnesty ad “deceptive” (Video)

These scandals even without the cover ups have resulted in a loss of trust with the government and numerous agencies. A new climate exists in Washington.

During the Watergate hearings the Republicans along with the Democrats sought to unseat Nixon a Republican President. This was a bipartisan effort. Today to explain the scandals, many influential Democrats have created a narrative that the IRS scandal is the fault of the Supreme Court, and that the Benghazi scandal is the Republican’s fault claiming they resisted the allocation of more money to the State Department for security which the State Department representative under oath stated was not the case. Both narratives have been proven false.

What America is experiencing today is much greater than what happened during Watergate. The problem is systemic. Agencies involved in this trifecta of scandals include: the Department of State, CIA, FBI, IRS, Department of the Treasury, Justice Department and White House staff. What remains to be seen is if Obama’s campaign was in anyway involved in any of these scandals.

For a larger view click on the image.

Big government demands more power and money to grow. It is not enough to investigate, some say it is time to cull. Members of Congress noted this not a leak it is a tsunami of corruption. Like a huge wave it has no conscience nor regrets as it wreaks havoc among the people.

This situation cannot be ascribed to a single incident and may have been building over a number of years. However the attack rhetoric from the White House and President Obama over the last four plus years has undoubtedly exacerbated incivility which has created a climate among various people and leaders in our agencies and White House to do things which have seriously damaged the integrity of the government. A republic cannot survive without the trust of the people.

It all comes down to the loss of trust.

The IRS action and the coverup is a serious abuse of power and a blow to our democracy. The cover up undoubtedly assisted Obama in his reelection bid in 2012. Any coverup by government officials is a serious matter. However if it is also done to manipulate an election it is even more egregious. The foundation of a democracy is trust.

On Friday J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s top tax watchdog, said he had informed top Treasury officials starting last spring about problems related to the special attention the agency was paying some conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. George said he shared the information with the Treasury’s general counsel in June and with Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin “shortly thereafter.”

When Obama was asked by a reporter whether anyone in the White House knew the IRS was targeting conservative groups Obama failed to answer the question. It is not credible to believe that both the Secretary of the Treasury and President Obama were not informed of the situation. The coverup undoubtedly was politically inspired right before the election and allowed the IRS abuse to continue up to and including the election and beyond.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue; it is an American issue. It strikes at the heart of our republican form of government. The coverup and its proximity to the election affects the integrity of the 2012 election, and our entire election process.

READ MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-panel-opens-hearing-on-irs-targeting-of-conservative-groups/2013/05/17/f1d7d352-beea-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html?hpid=z1

New Planned Parenthood banner ad:

Question: How can a dead baby thank its mother?

Lauren Enk from the Media Research Center writes, “Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion mill, just launched a decidedly strange new advertisement… The self-described ’sexual and reproductive health care provider’ recently put out a banner ad in which a picture of a smiling mother toting a happy baby is captioned by the words “YOUR BABY WILL THANK YOU.”

“Planned P’s typical line of business is anti-life, pregnancy-terminating services, so at first it looks a little odd to suggest your baby would thank you for dropping by one of their clinics. But the ad actually attempts to shift the focus away from their abortion services to their other lines of work which haven’t been getting such gruesome negative attention lately, like birth control and other ‘family planning’ options’, notes Enk.

Alisa LaPolt Snow, Florida Planned Parenthood lobbyist.

Enk states, “Either way, and however loony, the new ad is a fairly desperate attempt to distract from Planned Parenthood’s blind-eye policy towards the children murdered in the womb at the hands of their abortionists. Even the cheerful ad looks downright absurd seen alongside the ghastly accounts about Gosnell. And it’s grimly ironic that a lobbyist for the ‘Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates told the state legislature in March that the fate of an infant born alive in a ‘botched abortion’ ‘should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician’.” In other words, the baby, a living, breathing, child, should have no legal protection from infanticide. Thanks Mom!”

“Ninety-eight percent of the services Planned Parenthood gives pregnant women are abortion (and it performed more than 650,000 of them in 2008 – 2009). What’s more, the national organization has mandated that all its affiliates provide abortions, and even encourages clinics to increase the number of abortions they provide. But when you have a PR problem and tax-payers are getting queasy about subsidizing your operation, you emphasize the much-nicer sounding ‘reproductive health,’ laughable as it may be,” reports Enk.

New revelations about Life Dynamics of Denton, Texas an abortion provider may be more grisly than what has been found in the case of former abortion provider and now convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell  Gosnell remains unrepentant. Read more about the Texas case by clicking here. Watch this video about Life Dynamics of Denton, TX:

US Attorney General Eric Holder on the enforcement of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act passed in 2002:

RELATED COLUMNS:

Another abortion ‘house of horrors’ in TX?
Doctor accused of illegal late-term procedures…
‘Twisted heads off fetus’ necks with bare hands’…

Representative Tom Rooney (R – FL District 17)

Representative Tom Rooney (R – FL District 17) has now become the eleventh member of the Florida delegation to co-sponsor the Fair Tax Act (HR-25/S-13). Rep. Rooney represents South Central Florida including most of Hardee, Desoto, Highlands, Okeechobee and St. Lucie Counties. He sits is on the House Appropriations committee. A full list of House sponsors may be viewed by clicking here. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) is the sponsor of S-13 in the US Senate. Senate sponsors may be viewed here.

The IRS scandal has renewed interest in HR-25.

The Fair Tax Act is introduced, “To promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.” The Fair Tax Act states:

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

2 (a) FINDINGS RELATING TO FEDERAL INCOME

3 TAX.—Congress finds the Federal income tax—

(1) retards economic growth and has reduced the standard of living of the American public;
(2) impedes the international competitiveness of 7 United States industry;
(3) reduces savings and investment in the United States by taxing income multiple times;
(4) slows the capital formation necessary for real wages to steadily increase;
(5) lowers productivity;
(6) imposes unacceptable and unnecessary administrative and compliance costs on individual and business taxpayers;
(7) is unfair and inequitable;
(8) unnecessarily intrudes upon the privacy and civil rights of United States citizens;
(9) hides the true cost of government by embedding taxes in the costs of everything Americans buy;
(10) is not being complied with at satisfactory levels and therefore raises the tax burden on law abiding citizens; and
(11) impedes upward social mobility.

Members of both major political parties have stated that the IRS is a threat to freedom, fairness and economic opportunity. However, none have suggested the elimination of the 90,000 employee strong IRS. Many have voiced concerned that the IRS will expand its powers by being a key part of the implementation of the Affordable Healthcare Act, which is a national tax according to a recent US Supreme Court decision.

Rep. Vern Buchanan (FL-District 13) addresses the Congressional investigation:

Rep. Buchanan sits on the House Ways and Means Committee. He has not signed on as a co-sponsor of HR-25.

Disclaimer: The author sits on the Board of Directors of Fair Tax – Florida.

RELATED COLUMNS:

IRS HID PROBE UNTIL AFTER ELECTION…
Agency stalled conservative groups, but gave speedy approval to Obama foundation…
Used ‘planted’ question to reveal scandal…
‘Absolutely Not Illegal’…
‘IS THIS STILL AMERICA?’
Congressman Receives Standing Ovation After He Rips IRS Commissioner…
IN CHARGE DURING ‘TEA PARTY’ TARGETING, NOW RUNS IRS OBAMACARE OFFICE…
IRS henchwoman got $103,390 in bonuses…
Top Dem Warns: Much More to Come…
OUSTED CHIEF: ‘Don’t Remember’ …
House Chairman Accuses WH of ‘Cover-Up’…
Political intimidation…
Conservative Hispanic Groups Targeted…
NOONAN: This Is No Ordinary Scandal…

It has been one heck of a week, and I can tell you I’d much rather be me than the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Now you ask, “Why?” My response is the subject for this week’s missive – mottos.

See, I grew up in an organization defined by its respective mottos, creeds that guided those of us who served. And if people are really sincere about their service to this nation within their respective military units, these mottos define them for the rest of their lives.

I recall being a young fella and watching the movie “The Green Berets” with John Wayne. I remember the scene of him standing at Airborne School and shouting, “Who are you?” and hearing the reply, “Airborne!” The next challenge was “How far?” and the response was, “All the Way!” Years later, there I stood on that same training ground shouting: “Airborne, sir! Airborne Sergeant Black Hat!”

And when I and the rest of the 4th Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment (Airborne Battalion Combat Team) reached our first duty station in Vicenza, Italy, we took pride in our challenge and response, “Airborne all the way!” This motto signified that we were a cut above others, that our standards were just a bit higher. We were U.S. Army paratroopers after all.

My second duty assignment was in the famed 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan. Our motto harkened back to the division’s incredible landing on Omaha Beach, France, on D-Day: “No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, duty first.”

That simple creed articulated what it meant to serve in that division but also to serve our nation. It was never about you. It was about duty first!

I also was an artillery officer and commanded Bravo Battery, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, where our motto was “Swift and bold.” I have always tried to honor that creed by being swift to action, not delaying, and being bold in my stance for freedom and principle.

After I commanded, I served in the 4th Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment. (Trivia fact: Our sister battalion, 1/5 FA, was the home of Alpha Battery, which was known as “Hamilton’s Own” after our first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, who served in that historic artillery outfit.) The motto of the 5th Field Artillery was “Faithful and true,” and God knows none of us are perfect but what a fantastic motto. To be faithful to a set of principles and true to something greater than self is the epitome of being a selfless servant of the republic.

Proud to be ‘second to none’

After instructing the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Kansas State University I headed to the Republic of Korea and the famed 2nd Infantry Division. The division motto? “Second to none.” Who the heck doesn’t want to see their unit as first – the best? Who would not want to see America as “Second to none”?

We never apologized for being in the ole Black Patch Division. Some people saw us as the cannon fodder for a North Korea invasion. We knew that if the North Koreans ever thought about crossing the demilitarized zone separating them from South Korea, they would get a butt whuppin’ second to none!

After serving in Korea, I was promoted to major and selected to attend the Army Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. My orders then took me to Fort Bragg, N.C., and the 18th Field Artillery Brigade. My mentor Col. Denny R. Lewis was the brigade commander. He instituted a new motto to complement our “Sweat saves blood” unit crest motto – “Tough, proud, disciplined.”

I also served there in the 1st Battalion (Air Assault), 377th Field Artillery Regiment, where our motto was “Be bold, Air Assault.”

In the political realm, what liberal progressives need to understand is that my DNA is hardwired to be bold, tough, aggressive and disciplined in my stand against whatever threatens my nation. Plus I’m an ole Southern boy. Never get our dander up ’cause we like a good old-fashioned fight.

My last two duty assignments – Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Fort Hood, Texas – added the icing to the cake. First I was selected to do an exchange assignment with the 2nd Marines Expeditionary Force and the world knows the Marines motto “Semper fidelis,” translated “Always faithful!” My final assignment was to command an artillery battalion in the 4th Infantry Division, another historic Army unit that landed at Utah Beach, France, on D-Day.

The motto of our 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment (MLRS) was “Duty, not reward” – that is why we serve. And I still use the motto of the famed Ivy Division to sign off here every week: “Steadfast and loyal.”

Throughout my military career I also had some awesome call signs. OK, they were not as sexy as Maverick, Goose or Iceman from Hollywood’s “Top Gun. But Detonate 6, Ranger 14, Steel 3, Gunslinger 5, and Deep Strike 6 are still great.

What mottos define Obama and his team?

Why did I share this with you all? Consider the scandals of our current federal government – the fast and furious “gun-walking” scandal; the reaction to the terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya; the shameful and deadly Extortion 17 incident I revisited last week; the IRS’ politically motivated targeting of conservative nonprofit groups; the Justice Department’s secret collection of Associated Press telephone records; and much more.

Ask yourself, what is the motto of the Obama administration? What creed do all the president’s men and women embrace as a guiding light to serve and protect the American republic?

What would you see as appropriate call signs for President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder?

I recount the units I served and their mottos with great pride. Those simple words were more than just momentary challenges and responses during my military career; they are defining descriptors for my life. And I couldn’t care less what characterless media writers say.

Ask yourself, can our elected leaders sign off with the words you see next?

“Representative West’s congressional and military experience along with his fearless approach to voicing key issues will provide a valuable point of view to the FOX News lineup,” said Fox news vice president in the announcement released on Business Wire. “Representative West’s congressional and military experience along with his fearless approach to voicing key issues will provide a valuable point of view to the FOX News lineup.”

EDITORS NOTE: This content was originally posted at Shark Tank.

I was twelve years old. In the following year my main source of normalcy and inspiration—my school day–would be turned upside down. I would go to a high school where riots and the threats of riots were commonplace.

Anti-American forces were at work to bring down America.

While I was worrying about junior high school, Larry Grathwohl, who had just come back to Cincinnati from Vietnam, was infiltrating the domestic terrorist group Weatherman, the only one to have done so. Larry saved potentially hundreds of lives when he alerted the FBI to a bomb placed near a Detroit police station and a restaurant.

Bill Ayers, Education Secretary of Weatherman, told him that in the revolution, lives would have to be sacrificed.

This week I have been traveling with Larry and Tina Trent, who have helped republish Larry’s memoir Bringing Down America, about his days with the domestic terrorists. Tina tells the story as we speak to various groups in Florida this week about how she happened to read Larry’s book in high school in the late 1970s. It was the one truthful one amidst a growing collection already devoted to hagiographies of the 1960s radicals in the library.

My interest in Bill Ayers began a few years ago when I learned about his career as a “Distinguished Professor of Education.” In reality he was working to destroy everything that was good about our education system. Ayers, after escaping punishment in 1980, used his position at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to spread his revolutionary ideas throughout the educational system–in the classes he taught, the books and articles he wrote, the conferences he attended, the dissertation committees he sat on, and the political connections he fostered with Barack Obama and Arne Duncan on the Annenberg Challenge.

One of the things that has encouraged me as we’ve talked to these groups is the awareness of Obama and Duncan’s education plan called Common Core. This is a complete federal power grab with an agenda in line with the educational aims of Bill Ayers. The last refuge of conservatives for education, homeschooling and private schools, will effectively be eliminated under Common Core.

I have no evidence directly connecting Bill Ayers to the writing of Common Core, but I do have evidence that Bill Ayers is still very influential in educational circles crafting the project. As I noted in my report for Accuracy in Media, in 2009, Bill Ayers was a keynote speaker at a Washington, D.C., education conference, alongside Arne Duncan, his Under Secretary, and a representative from Achieve, a well-connected D.C.-based non-profit credited with being the architect of Common Core. Linda Darling-Hammond, a longtime close associate of Bill Ayers, and Obama’s education transition team leader, is in charge of developing one of the two national tests that will be administered under Common Core.

More recently, Duncan, Darling-Hammond, and Ayers participated in the annual meeting of AERA, the American Educational Research Association, held in San Francisco from April 27 to May 1, 2013. This professional association boasts of over 25,000 members consisting of faculty, researchers, and graduate students who work at universities and colleges, federal and state agencies, school systems, test companies, and non-profit agencies. Ayers used to be vice president for curriculum in the organization.

Ayers was listed in the program as participating in eight activities this year, including a panel discussion called “The Role of Education in the Quest for Freedom,” “Dystopia and Education,” “Social Imagination and Political Activism in Education,” and “Making Comics as Educational Research and Theory” (his book To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher was adapted into a “graphic,” or comic, book in 2010; it is used widely in colleges of education).

Ayers also coauthored and presented a paper with the Marxist professor of education, Peter McLaren, titled “In Memoriam: Hugo Chavez.” Ayers had traveled at least four times to speak in Venezuela to promote his idea of education as “the motor-force of revolution.”

The Department of Education bragged about Arne Duncan’s speech at the AERA conference, which appeared to be devoted entirely to sessions advocating social justice and not academics. They did not mention Ayers.

In his address, Duncan talked about the “sea-change” in “assessments” under Common Core. Darling-Hammond’s tests, he said approvingly, would address “deeper learning.” “Diagnostic or formative assessments” will measure “student growth,” and determine whether students are “college-and-career ready.” Much in line with Ayers’s pedagogical strategy, Duncan hailed the forthcoming Assessment 3.0 that “will shift from seat-based learning to competency-based learning.” The “next frontier in assessment research,” said Duncan, is in “non-cognitive skills.”

Why would a school want to measure “non-cognitive skills” and what does this mean? Aren’t students supposed to be tested on their “cognitive skills,” theirknowledge in subjects like history and science, and their skills in subject like math and writing?

Welcome to the Brave New World of social and emotional learning. As I noted, Darling-Hammond has served on the board of CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Ayers taught. Welcome to the Bill Ayers way of teaching, through emotionally invasive sessions, indoctrination, chaos, and confusion. (I describe this in my new book Bill Ayers: Teaching Revolution.)

It may be called “Assessment 3.0,” but it sounds an awful lot like the “criticism/self-criticism” sessions of the Weathermen Larry Grathwohl has been describing to me and to our audiences.

Weatherman recruited in high schools. Now they’ve essentially entered the Department of Education.

It’s no longer abstract when you can’t hide or remove your children.

For more information on our tour, go to www.bringingdownamerica.com. The site includes an archive of newspaper articles and documents about the Weathermen, compiled by Tina Trent. In it you will see the shameful history of the media endorsing the Weathermen and helping them lie about their violent pasts. If you’d like to have us come speak to your group, contact us. We’ll be in Georgia next month.

The Congresswoman from Florida never disappoints, as her relentless  fear-mongering statements aimed at demonizing Republican are entertaining, and make for great read.

Here is what Speaker Boehner wrote on Twitter about repealing Obamacare-

Senator Cornyn on Twitter-

Presumably to counter Republicans, Wasserman Schultz also took social media to rant against having to vote on Bachmann’s Obamacare repeal bill.

Twitter– “What a waste of time and taxpayer money.”

Facebook-

“I still can’t believe Republicans made us vote to repeal Obamacare today for the 37th time. Here’s some of what was at stake.”

A waste of time and taxpayer money? Apparently, Obamacare seems to be more of a waste of taxpayer money than what the President first claimed. According to  the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Obamacare will cost $1.8 trillion in the first decade, not the $900 billion that President Obama claimed it would cost.

Monica Crowley just rubbed it in, just a little-

When President Obama was selling his health care legislation to Congress, he declared that “the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years.” But with the law’s major provisions set to kick in next year, a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office projects that the law will cost double that, or $1.8 trillion.- DC Examiner

 Ouch!

EDITORS NOTE: This content was originally posted at Shark Tank.