Truth Has No Agenda (GB)

Unemployment

U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading

[CNSNews.com]

By Terence P. Jeffrey

September 10, 2012

Chicago Public Schools – [Editor:  Here's a statistic I just heard from Rush.  The average salary for a teacher in Chicago is $76, 000 Per Year excluding bennies. The average citizen in Chicago makes $48,000 Per Year.  AND THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH A WHOPPING 16% RAISE!  Also, 71 cents out of every new dollar taxes goes towards Public Union Pensions.  Is that fair? Is it "social justice" when all this money produces results indicated in this story?]

(AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math.

Chicago public school teachers went on strike on Monday and one of the major issues behind the strike is a new system Chicago plans to use for evaluating public school teachers in which student improvement on standardized tests will count for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. Until now, the evaluations of Chicago public school teachers have been based on what a Chicago Sun Times editorial called a “meaningless checklist.”

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education administered National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in reading and math to students around the country, including in the Chicago Public Schools. The tests were scored on a scale of 0 to 500, with 500 being the best possible score. Based on their scores, the U.S. Department of Education rated students’ skills in reading and math as either “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” or “advanced.”

(more…)


WashPost’s King Claims to See ‘Visceral Hatred’ from GOP, Obama Has to ‘Just Die’ to Please Krauthammmer

[Newbusters.org]

By Brad Wilmouth | September 07, 2012 | 23:09

Appearing as regular panel member on Friday’s Inside Washington on PBS, as he recounted former President Bill Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, liberal Washington Post columnist Colby King claimed that “the amount of hate that the Republicans have for Barack Obama is just astounding,” calling it “raw, visceral hate.”

A bit later, after right-leaning panel member Charles Krauthammer offered criticism of Michelle Obama’s speech, King lambasted him for not giving the First Lady a pass from substantive analysis and ended up gratuitously suggesting that dying was the only thing President Obama and wife Michelle could do to make the conservative Krauthammer happy. King:

When it comes to the Obamas, for goodness sakes, they do nothing right. I’m prepared to just go ahead and accept that from you, Charles. They do nothing right. Maybe the thing that they could do that would make you happy, maybe they should just die.

(more…)


Official Accounting: $10T Withdrawn From U.S. Treasury This Fiscal Year Alone

[CNSNews.com]

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(CNSNews.com) – Although the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal government will spend $3.563 trillion in fiscal year 2012 and the White House Office of Management estimates it will be $3.795 trillion, actual withdrawals from the U.S. Treasury have already exceeded $10 trillion.

In fact, as of the close of business Wednesday, withdrawals from the Treasury equaled $10,201,615,000,000 for fiscal 2012, which began on Oct. 1, 2011 and will end on Sept. 30.

According to the Daily Treasury Statement–the official daily accounting sheet for the federal government—withdrawals from the Treasury exceeded $10 trillion this year on Aug. 30, when they rose from $9.903 trillion to $10.035 trillion.

How can this be?

(more…)


Convention floor erupts as Dems restore references to God, Jerusalem in platform

[FoxNews.com]

Published September 05, 2012

The floor of the Democratic National Convention erupted Wednesday over a sudden move to restore to the platform a reference to “God” and recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — after heavy criticism from Republicans for initially omitting them.

Democrats, though, were hardly in agreement over the reversal.

A large and loud group of delegates shouted “no” as convention chairman, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for the vote late Wednesday afternoon. Villaraigosa had to call for the vote three times before ruling that the “ayes” had it. Many in the crowd booed after he determined the language would be restored.

(more…)


Budget cuts to silence military buglers, replaced with recorded renditions of Taps at New York funerals

[FoxNews.com]

By Joshua Rhett Miller

Published September 05, 2012

A bugler plays ‘Taps’ during the 2009 funeral for Army Spc. Stephen Mace at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Due to a looming budget cut on Oct. 1, virtually all military funerals in New York state will use an electronic bugle instead of a live performance. (AP)

As budget cuts are set to silence live performances of Taps at military funerals in New York, one military bugler told FoxNews.com the iconic musical piece should always be performed by an Honor Guard musician.

Jari Villanueva, director of the Maryland National Guard Honor Guard and a bugler at thousands of military funerals, said having a phony hornsman hold up an instrument while a recording plays isn’t befitting of the somber task of burying a veteran. Yet, the piped-in version is what mourners will hear at virtually all New York military funerals beginning Oct. 1, due to a 25 percent reduction in federal funding for the state’s Military Forces Honor Guard.

(more…)


Occupy Wall Street Shows up at DNC, Bashes Obama

[Reason.com]

| September. 4, 2012 4:34 pm

CHARLOTTE – The Occupy Wall Street movement has materialized in zombified form near the venues of the Democratic National Convention. In Marshall Park, a leafy city property complete with a shallow pond, a camp of approximately 50 tents has sprung up in typical Occupy fashion. It’s not as developed as some of the camps that appeared during the “American Autumn” but its occupants are cantankerous and disappointed with President Obama, much as they were almost a year ago.

When I visited their encampment, they were mustering for a march that focused on Bradley Manning and unmanned drone strikes. The Occupiers were maneuvering a close to life-sized replica of an unmanned drone that they would later parade through the police-lined streets like the statue of a saint on a Catholic feast day.

“People like Obama garnered support from a lot of people when he was running. Once he got into office he basically turned his back on the working class. He said he was gonna end the wars, he escalated the war in Afghanistan, he continued use of mercenaries in Iraq, he said he was gonna close down Gitmo. He hasn’t done that,” said Travis Cummins, 27, of Mobile, Alabama.

(more…)


Michelle Obama leads convention campaign to rekindle the ’08 fire

[FoxNews-AP]

Published September 04, 2012

Michelle Obama will lead a Democratic convention program Tuesday aimed at rekindling that feeling her husband’s supporters had in 2008.

Amid an increasingly bitter presidential campaign and concerns about the state of the economy, a full roster of Democratic officials and activists will take the stage in Charlotte Tuesday evening to make the case for a second President Obama term. Just as in Tampa, the speeches are sure to include plenty of fiery accusations against the other side. And just as with the Republican convention, the speakers’ chief job is to sell their candidate to voters.

The enthusiasm in 2012 is not exactly what it was for the president’s history-making, world-rallying 2008 campaign. The president’s approval rating, according to Gallup, has dropped from nearly 70 percent when he took office to 45 percent at the beginning of September — with more Americans now disapproving than approving of his job performance.

(more…)


Liberalism, as we know it

[HumanEvents.com]

By: George Will

September 1, 2012

Liberalism, as we know it

WASHINGTON — With Americans, on average, worth less and earning less than when he was inaugurated, Barack Obama is requesting a second term by promising, or perhaps threatening, that prosperity is just around the corner if he can practice four more years of trickle-down government. This is dubious policy, scattering borrowed money in the hope that this will fill consumers and investors with confidence. But recently Obama revealed remarkable ambitions for it when speaking in Pueblo, Colo., a pleasant place Democratic presidents should avoid.

After delivering in Pueblo what would be his last extended speech, Woodrow Wilson suffered a collapse that prefaced his disabling stroke. And in Pueblo this summer, Obama announced what should be a disqualifying aspiration.

After a delusional proclamation — General Motors “has come roaring back” — Obama said: “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry.” We have been warned.

(more…)


Republican Convention: In Spite of Background Differences, Susana Martinez Backs Romney

[Fox News Latino]

By

Published August 29, 2012

In a sign of her rising stature within the Republican Party, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez took center stage Wednesday night at the Republican Convention in Tampa – speaking right before vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

In her speech, an emotional Martinez attacked President Barack Obama for the U.S.’s growing national debt while calling for bi-partisan politics to solve America’s problems. Martinez, like her fellow Latino politicians Ted Cruz of Texas and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, began her convention speech by recalling her family’s blue-collar past.

“We grew up on the border and truly lived paycheck to paycheck. My dad was a golden gloves boxer in the Marine Corps, then a deputy sheriff. My mom worked as an office assistant,” Martinez said, adding that her family opened up a security business that had her guarding a church parking lot with a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum. “And sure, there was help along the way. But my parents took the risk. They stood up. And you better believe that they built it.”

Too many Americans are out of work, and our debt is out of control. This election needs to be about those issues.

(more…)


Without teleprompter, Condoleezza Rice brings GOP faithful to their feet

[DailyCaller.com]

Published: 12:18 AM 08/30/2012

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks to the crowd at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, on August 29, 2012 during the Republican National Convention (RNC). (ROBYN BECK/AFP/GettyImages)

TAMPA, Fla. — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rallied the GOP faithful at the Republican National Convention with a barn-burner speech Wednesday night.

The only speaker of the convention thus far to take the podium without the assistance of a teleprompter, Rice spoke of the challenges facing the country, both foreign and domestic, and the need for a leader.

Commencing with an anecdote about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Rice transitioned to the economic crisis and turmoil abroad. She pointed out that around the world people ask “Where does America stand?” only to find that the answer is ambiguous. To Rice, the country is in need of leadership.

“I know too that there is a weariness I know there is a sense that we have carried these burdens long enough,” she said, noting that the country has no other choice by to be a leader, because “either nobody will lead and there will be chaos or someone else will who does not share our values. We do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead — and you cannot lead from behind.” Rice asserted that Romney and Ryan are the ones who can lead.

(more…)


Ryan on tap to deliver ‘hard truths’ in VP nomination speech

[FoxNews.com]

Published August 29, 2012

If Chris Christie lit a fire under Republicans last night, it’s now up to Paul Ryan to provide the fuel to keep it burning for what promises to be a hard-fought two-month battle to win the White House.

The Republican vice presidential candidate is teed up Wednesday to deliver the “hard truths” Christie talked about in his rousing keynote address on opening night. While Christie is known as the GOP fighter, Ryan is the point-man for budget-balancing solutions the party claims to represent.

The Wisconsin congressman has been quietly preparing his speech for days. Members of Ryan’s staff contacted by Fox News earlier this week said they couldn’t say precisely how long it would be, but that he has “teased” some of the ideas in it before.

Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is best known for his controversial plans to overhaul Medicare and the tax system. They are likely the kinds of “hard truths” Christie raised Tuesday night, as the New Jersey governor claimed Mitt Romney and Ryan would lead a “new era of truth-telling” in Washington.

(more…)


Getting Rid of the ‘Likable’ President

American [Spectator.org]

By – August 29, 2012 @ 6:08AM

Or is he just an “untouchable” member of the Ruling Class?

Barack Obama floats like a butterfly, even if he lacks the verbal facility to sting like a bee. He was lucky to draw the befuddled John McCain as his opponent in the 2008 presidential race. Rather than exposing Obama’s bloated ego to the ridicule that it so richly deserved, McCain decided to make nice — adding his voice to the hosanna chorus greeting the young Messiah. “And, finally, a word to Senator Obama and his supporters,” McCain said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National convention. “We’ll go at it over the next two months — you know the nature of this business — and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and my admiration.”

(more…)


Owner of Liberal Website That Attacked Romney’s Cayman Island ‘Schemes’, Located in The Cayman Islands

[Newsbusters.org]

By Rusty Weiss | August 23, 2012

Earlier today, the liberal website Gawker did a document dump including 950 pages worth of confidential documents affiliated with Bain Capital.

The idea was to expose Mitt Romney’s alleged tax-dodging schemes with offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands.  Problem being, the parent corporation known as the Gawker Media Group has a little secret of their own.

Gawker writes:

Today, we are publishing more than 950 pages of internal audits, financial statements, and private investor letters for 21 cryptically named entities in which Romney had invested—at minimum—more than $10 million as of 2011 (that number is based on the low end of ranges he has disclosed—the true number is almost certainly significantly higher). Almost all of them are affiliated with Bain Capital, the secretive private equity firm Romney co-founded in 1984 and ran until his departure in 1999 (or 2002, depending on whom you ask).

(more…)


Romney: Put Akin on Ice

[Breitbart.com]

Romney To Akin: Step Aside

by John Nolte – August 21, 2012


In a statement just released from the Romney campaign, the new leader of the Republican party has stepped up to lead:

As I said yesterday, Todd Akin’s comments were offensive and wrong and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country. Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race.

(more…)


Wash Post Poll: Large Majorities Want Smaller Federal Gov’t, Say Gov’t Controls Too Much

[CNSNews.com]

U.S. TreasuryU.S. Treasury Building (AP Story)

(CNSNews.com) – A survey of 3,130 American adults conducted by the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation between July 25 and August 5 discovered that large majorities of Americans favor a smaller federal government and believe the government controls too much of our daily lives.

The survey discovered these results even though only 25 percent of the people it polled were Republicans, while another 34 percent were Democrats and another 34 percent were Independents.

(more…)


Ryan Candidacy Puts Debts, Deficits Front and Center

[Breitbart.com]

by Wynton Hall 11 Aug 2012, 4:34 PM PDT

Liberals who are “giddy” at the prospects of Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan are in for a rude and sober awakening when they realize the strategic genius behind the decision.

Team Romney’s strategy?  Lure the Obama campaign into attacking Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” deficit reduction plan as a means to frame the 2012 election as a battle over the economic consequences of debt and deficits.  If Obama strategists David Axelrod and David Plouffe take the bait, Mitt Romney will win.

(more…)


The Lie That Should Sink Obama

[PersonalLiberty.com]

Posted: August 1, 2012

by

The Lie That Should Sink Obama

UPI
The words “you didn’t build that” may sink Barack Obama’s campaign.

If there is one sentence that determines who will win this year’s Presidential election, I hope it will be Barack Obama’s incredible statement that “you didn’t build that.”

In just four short words, Obama confirmed his bias against America’s business builders and job creators — the men and women who slaved and sacrificed to help make us the wealthiest, most productive and most generous Nation the world has ever known.

(more…)


Why does Obama’s idea of success look so much like failure? [Reader Post]

[FloppingAces.net]

By:

Monday, July 30th, 2012 at 6:00 am

“We tried our plan and it worked”   Yikes!

This is what Obama’s success looks like:

Obama must hide from more bad economic news

On Monday, the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth. This could particularly hurt exports and manufacturing in the United States.

All this is happening while the American president declares his contempt for private business, attacks success and renews his call for punitive tax increases, and his Democratic allies in Congress celebrate the idea of pushing America off the “fiscal cliff” — not in pursuit of economic recovery, but to satisfy their death wish for the most productive Americans. Let’s face it, Obama and the Democrats resent private accomplishment and want independent Americans to be cut down to size while the government is made a little bigger.

(more…)


This week in Congress: Tax battles, Iran sanctions, GSA scandal

[HumanEvents.com]

By: Hope Hodge
7/29/2012 10:25 AM

This week in Congress: Tax battles, Iran sanctions, GSA scandal

In August, Congress will still be locked in a partisan showdown on whether to renew Bush-era tax rates for all Americans, or just some of them.

The Senate last week passed Democratic tax legislation that conformed to President Barack Obama’s plan to extend the rates to only Americans making $250,000 or less per year; now the Republican-controlled House will have a chance to vote the bill down. Meanwhile, a House vote also is expected on its version of the extension, which continues the tax cuts for all income brackets.

Legislators also are hoping to finalize a new round of Iran sanctions that meets the approval of both houses. The sanctions legislation passed months ago in the House and Senate, but some are concerned that trade loopholes authorized by the Obama administration could keep the final package from winning House support.

(more…)


What? ABC Indignantly Chides Romney’s U.K. Trip: Advisers Question President’s ‘Heritage’

[Newsbuster.org]

By Scott Whitlock | July 26, 2012

Scott Whitlock's picture

ABC kicked off Mitt Romney’s visit to London, Thursday, by hyping “controversial” comments from the candidate’s advisers. A Good Morning America graphic adopted the worst possible interpretation for remarks by anonymous Romney aides that the President doesn’t respect the “Anglo-Saxon heritage.” The network graphic blasted, “Romney Takes London: Advisor Quote Questions Obama Heritage.”

Saying that Romney aides “questioned Obama’s heritage” hints at birtherism or other charges that the operatives clearly did not make. Reporter David Muir included the quote from one adviser who suggested that the White House “doesn’t fully appreciate the shared history” Britain and America have. Other remarks, not mentioned by Muir, include attacking Obama as a “left-winger” and promising to return the bust of Winston Churchill. How, exactly, do these comments question Obama’s heritage?

Parroting the Democratic line, Muir quoted a tweet by David Axelrod: “Mitt’s trip off to flying start, even before he lands, with stunningly offensive quotes from his team in British press.”

Perhaps trying to lower Romney in comparison to Obama, Muir reminded viewers of the Democrat’s 2008 tour of Europe: “A trip that will inevitably be compared to then-candidate Barack Obama’s overseas trip four years ago. A thick crowd of two hundred thousand in Berlin.”

Muir has a pattern with this. On July 1, he hyped Obama’s Bain attacks, insisting that the Republican “can’t escape” attack ads.

(more…)


NBC Desperately Scrambles to Claim Romney Told Olympians ‘You Didn’t Build That’

[Newsbusters.org]

By Kyle Drennen| July 24, 2012 | 13:34

Kyle Drennen's picture

In an article for NBCNews.com’s First Read on Monday, Domenico Montanaro eagerly proclaimed to readers: “Mitt Romney has criticized President Obama for his ‘you didn’t build that’ line, when it came to businesses….But in 2002, during his speech at the Opening Ceremonies at the Winter Olympics….Romney made a similar argument about Olympians.”

Romney simply told the Olympic athletes – many in their teens and twenties – that they achieved their individual success with help of parents, coaches, and their local communities. However, by Monday night, The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, filling in for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, wildly misconstrued the comment to slam Romney: “Got that, Olympians? You didn’t build it….It’s like David Axelrod went back in time and put the precise words he needed into Mitt Romney’s mouth.”

An update to the First Read article added: “A Republican strategist sends over this response: ‘The Obama Campaign is comparing the government to a loving parent? What happened to Julia?’” Montanaro felt compelled to clarify: “For the record, the post did not originate with the Obama campaign but an NBC archive search.” Based on Klein’s reaction to the Romney hit piece, is there any difference between NBC News and the Obama campaign?

(more…)


Norquist: A Vote for Obama is a Vote for $500 B Tax Increase

[Newsmax.com]

By Patrick Hobin and Kathleen Walter

Monday, 23 Jul 2012 07:37 PM

Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist fired back against criticism that his anti-tax pledge is getting in the way of a tax compromise by Congress, arguing in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV that his pledge makes possible real tax reform and that contained in any compromise is a hidden tax increase.

Norquist’s group organizes the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which asks all candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to oppose all tax increases. The pledge, which Norquist says he dreamed up when he was 12 years old, was endorsed by Ronald Reagan upon its inception in 1986, and has been signed by more than 1,100 state office holders as well as 238 current House members and 41 current Senators.

Norquist has come under fire from the first President George Bush and others about the rigidity of the pledge and Senate Democrats believe they have come up with a plan to get around the anti-tax pledge by letting all tax cuts lapse Jan. 1 and then reinstating most of them days later, an idea which Norquist has said “doesn’t pass the laugh test.”

The plan shows efforts by lawmakers to include new federal revenues in an attempt to avoid the “fiscal cliff” in January. All Bush-era tax cuts expire at that time and automatic spending cuts to the military kick in.

Norquist told Newsmax.TV  in an exclusive interview that the pledge “stops a tax increase, so if somebody tells you the pledge is getting in the way of getting something done what they mean is it’s getting in the way of a tax increase.”

(more…)


‘We Don’t Have Capitalism’: Glenn Beck, Richard Duncan and Art Laffer Break Down The Economic Crisis

[TheBlaze.com]

Glenn Beck hosted an unusual show on Tuesday night, devoting large segments of the program not to personal sermonizing, but instead to hearing from two different experts with very different takes on the economy. Those two experts were economists Art Laffer and Richard Duncan, who managed to both take a very pessimistic view of where the economy currently is, while also offering diametrically opposed suggestions for how to improve it.

Broadly speaking, Duncan approached the issue from the Left, while Laffer approached it from the Right. However, those two descriptions don’t actually do the full clash of ideologies justice. Duncan argued that the choice of options for the United States government was threefold, and that policymakers could either 1) Revert to a balanced budget, which would contract the economy all the way into a depression, 2) Keep spending at the current rates and go bankrupt and hit a recession in 5-10 years, or 3) Keep spending at current rates, but use the money to invest in up-and-coming technology, rather than to pay off cronies or create shovel-ready jobs. Duncan favored the third approach, as you’ll see in the following video:

{http://web.gbtv.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=23101059&source=GBTV}

(more…)


Our Disgraceful President

[Townhall.com]

Derek Hunter
Derek Hunter  Columnists

Jul 15, 2012

Warren G. Harding was corrupt, as was Richard M. Nixon. Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy were like blind golfers, looking for a hole, any hole, every hole. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt were power-mad narcissists convinced they knew best how everyone else should live. Jimmy Carter was clueless. But as we approach the 100-year anniversary of the first of these men to serve as president, all have been lapped in debasing their office by its current occupant: Barack Obama.

It is understandable President Obama would not want to run on his record. Who would? “Give me four more years so I can make up for the first four” is not the stuff of campaign slogan greatness.

But even that wouldn’t work because, as he told CBS News this week, “The mistake of my first term – couple of years – was thinking this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.” In other words, his only flaw is he’s too damn close to perfect.

It’s like someone bragging about being the most humble person on the planet.

(more…)


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 751 other followers