Free Republic

GRAND RAPIDS -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm told Kent County educators Friday the state's school financing system "clearly is not working" and said lawmakers must agree to both a short-term fix as well as long-term changes by the end of the year. But the gathering of superintendents and school board members also gave Granholm an earful, especially after she said lawmakers are "battle weary." "If elected people are weary, my level of sympathy for them is zilch," Catherine Mueller, Grand Rapids school board president, told Granholm. "They ran for these jobs and put themselves in this situation." Granholm appeared before educators...

INTERVIEW - Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on her campaign to stop the government from fostering extortion via ACORN.

I have to say I am outraged tonight. One of my closest friends on this planet said good bye to her 19 year old son tonight as he is shipping off from Cherry Point on Friday in N.C. to Afghanistan...in Helmand to be exact which is in the southern portion of the toilet for a country. This will be his first tour ever and tonight he was telling me how he had to spend over $3,000.00 on his own armor and gear to leave with. That the clips for his weapons that he was issued didn't even fit the weapons...

In a city ravaged by the highest rate of AIDS cases in the nation, the D.C. Health Department paid millions to nonprofit groups that delivered substandard services or failed to account for any work at all, even as sick people searched for care or died waiting. More than $1 million in AIDS money went to a housing group whose ailing boarders sometimes struggled without electricity, gas or food. A supervisor said she was ordered to create records for ghost employees. More than $500,000 was earmarked for a housing program whose executive director had a string of convictions for theft, drugs...

Obama administration officials said Wednesday there is no chance that ACORN will get a Homeland Security grant it was awarded last month because of a provision in a bill signed into law last week prohibiting any federal funding to the controversial group. Several members of Congress said they were pleased that ACORN will not get the money, which would have come from funding typically earmarked for fire departments across the country, but they questioned why it had been awarded to ACORN in the first place. At least one also still wants official assurance of a permanent withdrawal of the $997,402...

While Congress wrestles with various ways to strip ACORN of any remaining federal funding, the White House has somewhat quietly begun to disconnect itself from the community-organizing group. OMB director Peter Orszag yesterday sent the following compliance memo to “all Executive Branch agencies” to meet the requirements of the continuing resolutions that Congress have already passed to keep the government funded in the absence of a budget. Orszag basically says to cut ACORN off immediately:

A top Islamic terrorist with the Al-aqsa Martyrs Brigades, tells WND's Klein how the U.S. military training he recieved from U.S. General Keith Dayton, has helped Fatah terrorists wound and kill Israelis: "Already, basic U.S. training provided during the 1990s helped kill Israelis, according to a Fatah militant interviewed by WND in 2007. Current U.S. training is far more advanced, and, if turned against Israel, may result in higher casualties". Abu Yousuf, a senior officer of Abbas' Force 17 Presidential Guard unit in Ramallah, described to WND in 2007 how his U.S. training helped him kill Israelis. "I do not...

Action Need: Tell Senate Panel to Vote Against Abortion Funding This Week Washington, DC -- The Senate Finance Committee today started its debate on the new Baucus health care bill that contains massive abortion subsidies and mandates. During the opening statements, Sen. Chuck Grassley said the bill funds abortions and that it must be amended to make sure that is not the case. The committee will vote this week on several pro-life amendments. Please read this story and take action now! http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5495.html

The Acorn scandal continues to mushroom. Yesterday BigGovernment.com published videos from a fourth Acorn office visit by freelance investigators...The woman manning the Acorn office in San Bernardino, Calif...responds to the pair's requests for help setting up a child-prostitution ring by claiming to be an ex-prostitute herself. "Heidi Fleiss is my hero!" she exclaims.... Think about it: When you feel threatened, isn't "Heidi Fleiss is my hero" the first thing you blurt out? Government officials continue responding to the Acorn revelations. The New York Post reports that Andrew Cuomo, New York's state attorney general, "yesterday launched an investigation into pork-barrel grants...

It's time to draw the line on ACORN. In fact, long past time. The group deserves not one penny of public funding. For any reason. And the recent outrageous videos -- showing its employees giving advice on committing housing fraud to filmmakers who claimed to be looking to open a brothel -- are only the latest reason. Yes, some officials are waking up. * State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said yesterday that he'd flag any state money going to the radical group. * Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the Brooklyn DA began probes. * City Council Speaker Christine Quinn suspended council...

Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the restrictions that have been placed on corporate money in politics. The ruling may be one of the Court’s most critical decisions in an age which has seen one Presidential campaign accumulate almost a billion dollars in contributions. When the constitutionality of any far reaching federal law is opposed, it is a matter of national relevance, however, when a law affecting the foundation of the Democracy is challenged, such event should be arousing everyone’s notice and should be at the forefront of all news media outlets. The case in...

You are all so well informed that I am sure you are aware of: Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a not-for-profit group charged with spending tens of millions of dollars it obtained through its affiliation with a school-improvement foundation created by late Ambassador Walter H.Annenberg. Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge's board of directors. Ayers served on the Chicago School Reform Collaborative, which made recommendations to the board on which organizations should get grants. The groups worked on school-reform efforts between 1995 and 2000. This from Michelle Malkins web page of today. If you read it, you will readily see why we...

In the wake of the Fatah Conference which recently took place, one very important item has deliberately not been reported on or covered by the biased media:And that is Fatah's "official endorsement" of the Al-aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a U.S. recognized foreign terrorist organization as the "military wing" of Fatah.The Palestinian Authority is run by Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah Party. In January of 2006 candidates representing Hamas, another U.S. recognized terrorist organization, won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority elections.This resulted in Congress immediately reacting by adaption of legislation to prohibit any further funding of the PA, as such funding would...

Very few Americans realize there exists a large network of far left philanthropists and foundations in America dedicated to destroying the American way of life, our Christian-based culture and our free enterprise system. They seek to remove America from its constitutional foundations and move it toward a European-style socialism. Much of this effort is coordinated by a little known group called the Tides Foundation and its related group, the Tides Center. The Strategic Principles of the Tides Foundation Over the course of its 33 year history, the Tides network has given hundreds of millions of dollars to anti-free enterprise groups,...

Minnesota's updated 20-year plan for highways identifies $65 billion in needs and only $15 billion available to address them. The just-finalized forecast from the Minnesota Department of Transportation says the $50 billion gap results from rising construction costs and stagnant revenue. Even though road planners expect preservation of existing roadways to be a priority, the number of pavement miles deemed poor is projected to grow from 600 now to 1,600 by 2018. Minnesota Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel says the 20-year plan is part goal statement, part to-do list. He sought to reassure the public that not meeting every objective wouldn't...

Poll: Majority of Americans Understand Health Care Bills Mean Abortion Funding Washington, DC -- The pro-life movement has been working overtime to educate Americans about the fact that the health care bills in Congress would result in massive abortion funding. Despite a slew of mainstream media stories to the contrary, the public appears to have received the message. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5373.html

AP Reverses Itself, Admits Health Care Bills Include Abortion Funding Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two days after LifeNews.com exposed an Associated Press article that mislead its readers on the abortion funding contained in the government-run health care plans, AP has backtracked. The news service is now reporting that the bills Congress is considering will result in taxpayer-funded abortions. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5321.html

Israel is up in arms over a declaration by a British government spokesman that the UK is funding political activity in Israel. World British spokesman Martin Day said in an interview in Dubai with Al-Arabiya television last week that the British government was "taking practical steps towards freezing settlement activities." "For instance," Day said, "we finance projects aimed at halting settlement activities. One of these projects seeks to build new Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and save Palestinian houses from demolition."

Are proponents of a robust American military seeing their worst nightmares come true? The military will need to come up with $60 billion in savings over the next five years to pay for new priorities to be set by the Defense secretary, a top Pentagon official said Tuesday. The order from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is based on an assumption that there will be no real growth in defense budgets over the next five years, a radical departure for a department whose budgets have increased more than 80 percent since 2001. […] One of the driving factors so far...

The Obama Administration has transfered $200 million directly to the Fatah PA in violation of the criteria of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 has very specific criteria that the Palestinian Authority must be in compliance with in order to recieve any U.S. funding. Section 620K contains the following criteria: The President must certify to Congress that 1) no ministry, agency, or instrumentality of the Palestinian Authority is controlled by a foreign terrorist organization and no member of a foreign terrorist organization serves in a senior policy making position in a ministry, agency, or...

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain wants to remove the $1.75 billion recently inserted into the proposed 2010 defense budget for more fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. The Arizona Republican's spokeswoman says he plans to file an amendment to cut the extra money for seven more F-22's. The Senate Armed Services Committee last month narrowly approved the additional funding requested by Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss.

Unemployment is at it's highest point in years, folks are losing their livelihoods daily. National industries are being socialized left and right. People are being kicked from their homes. The Federal government as well as state governments are virtually bankrupt. We have a "leader" that panders to our enemies and spits on our allies. We have a uberliberal supermajority that's shoving one of the biggest lies in our history, man-made global warming, down our throats and soon enough will be hitting our pockets. These troglodytes are considering a SECOND stimulus. We have an economy that keeps getting worse by the...

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -- The Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, a job-training facility in one of Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods, is threatened with receiving no federal money at a time of high unemployment -- simply because of its name. The center has become a victim of a move on Capitol Hill to block funding for projects that bear the monikers of sitting lawmakers. "It doesn't seem fair that rich private entities can get funded and this poor school cannot," said Rep. Waters (D-Los Angeles), who had a heated confrontation with Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.)...

Legislators hear pleas to fund college programs, financial aid By Laurel Rosenhall Published: Tuesday, Jun. 2, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 3A College students, faculty and administrators from up and down California blasted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's education budget proposals in a packed budget conference committee hearing Monday afternoon.Their bottom line: The proposed cuts to California's community colleges and universities will mean fewer students can attend, just as the economy is driving more people to seek education.To help close the $24.3 billion deficit, Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting payments... ...That would leave 118,000 high school seniors who were expecting Cal Grants...

The Obama administration moved Wednesday to impose financial sanctions on two men accused of providing financial support to the Hezbollah terror group. The Treasury Department's action covers Kassim Tajideen, who operates a network of businesses in Lebanon and Africa, and Abd al Menhem Qubaysi, whose base of operation is Cote d' Ivoire in Western Africa. Any bank accounts of other financial assets found in the United States that belong to the men must be frozen. Americans also are prohibited from doing business with them.

Over the last decade the various teachers unions across the country have expanded their operations into the courtroom. Unions have threatened, and even successfully litigated, "adequacy" lawsuits across the country, to force states to increase funds to K-12 education. On Tuesday, Lynn Warne, president of the Nevada State Education Association, threatened such an adequacy lawsuit. But what exactly is "adequate" funding? The National Center for Education Statistics reports that during the 1959-60 school year, Nevada spent $430 per pupil. By the 1999-2000 school year, Nevada was spending $6,145 per pupil. After adjusting for inflation, Nevada spent about 146 percent more...

One of the technologies that seems a likely candidate for this funding is the rebirth of cold fusion, or now known as a low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) such as featured in a 60 Minutes TV news magazine segment on April 19.

Public school finance is a world where relatively arbitrary accounting categories are regularly deployed to give parents and taxpayers overly modest impressions of existing spending. In reality: 1. In Nevada, the true spending amount on K-12 education during the 2008-09 school year averaged $13,052 per pupil. 2. Per-pupil expenditures during that period ranged from a low of $10,889 in Churchill County to a high of $49,551 in Eureka County. 3. Although the Clark County School District officially reports per-pupil spending for the 2008-09 school year will be $7,175, the actual true cost per pupil will be $13,387. 4. Only 34...

The previous article examined how Violence Policy Center (VPC) had to downsize in recent years in order to survive, due to significant decreases in “direct public support.” Because VPC has no public membership revenues, the term “direct public support” is misleading. Two people perform most of VPC’s public outreach: Executive Director Josh Sugarman and Legislative Director Kristen Rand. Between 2003 and 2007, as revenues decreased 49.9%, both Sugarman’s and Rand’s salaries increased 5.9%. But because revenues decreased, these two top earners––each of whom earned $132,894 in salary and $3,987 in benefits in 2007––went from 15.5% of total revenue in 2003...

Last November, before the election, this blog predicted that if Obama was elected president, he would push for the legitimization of the Hamas Islamic terrorist organization. That post has been continuously updated as relevant moves by Team Obama have taken place. Here is the most shocking, but not surprising, move by Team Obama yet. From Jpost: "The Obama administration has asked Congress for minor changes in US law that would allow the continued provision of funds to the Palestinian Authority even if Hamas officials become part of a Palestinian unity government, the LA Times reported Monday. " [There should be...

Hey Nancy--you have implied that the nationwide Tea Party's were funded by wealthy right-wing types that have an agenda regarding taxes. Guess what--you are right--only about the taxes though. I attended a TEA'd party in my hometown and who funded our little gathering? Common folks who care about America-that's who. We had donations from local groups for sound equipment, a banner and a few t-shirts worn by those who by a true grass roots effort established our tea party. I did not see one ounce of the "astro turf" as Ms. Pelosi would like to claim was there. Ms. Pelosi...

Major war-funding legislation while Barack Obama was in the Senate, and how he voted:

"Western Funders Misled: Fatah Still Refuses To Recognize Israel" That should be a frontpage headline on all the major news sites. As well as talked about on the nightly news. It should be front and center on Drudge Report, but it isn't. The Fatah Palestinian Authority recieves Western funding and support because it's alledged that they are the "moderates" who want peace and recognize Israel. This report exposes that myth. But the MSM, including Fox, the Drudge Report, and Yahoo News, are not bothering to cover this. Forget about CNN.

(03-17) 16:51 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- UC Hastings College of the Law can deny recognition and funding to a Christian student group because it excludes gays, lesbians and non-Christians, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The San Francisco law school is entitled to require official student organizations to "accept all comers as members, even if those individuals disagree with the mission of the group," the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. It said the school's policy is "viewpoint-neutral" and does not violate the rights of theChristian Legal Society. The brief ruling cited the court's decision last year allowing a...

Call, e-mail, or fax your Congressman and tell them to oppose $900 million U.S. tax dollars Obama wants for Islamists in Gaza, who voted for Hamas and danced in the streets on 9/11. It is bad enough that taxpayers have to pay for the irresponsible lending practices of some financial institutions in this country. It is worse when we have to pay for damage in Gaza as a result of Islamic terrorists and their supporters who brought Israel's counter-terror operation upon themselves. No U.S. taxpayer "bailout" for Gaza or the Fatah PA! Contrary to what is reported in the media,...

Washington, DC -- Democratic Party leaders in the House of Representatives shut down an attempt by a leading pro-life congressman to fix a budget bill that authorizes funding to a group that has supported forced abortions in China. Rep. Chris Smith hoped to amend the omnibus budget bill to strip UNFPA funding.

U.S. Secretary of State Clinton will pledge $900 million in taxpayer aid to help rebuild parts of Gaza, damaged as a result of Islamic terrorists drawing fire from the IDF after launching rockets into Israel. Lincoln once asked Grant when he expected Lee and his soldiers to be starved out of the trenches around Petersburg, Va. Grant replied, "Never, so long as our army continues to supply their army with beefsteak." That in reference to a successful Confederate raid on a herd of yankee cattle. When will the terrorists and their supporters in Gaza and the other Arab populated areas...

Washington, DC -- Congressional Democrats have unveiled their new omnibus spending bill that will fund federal government programs through the Autumn months. The measure, H.R. 1105, contains language that would restore the money President Bush withheld from the UNFPA because of its abortion activities. Sending taxpayer dollars to the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, has been controversial because the group both advocates for abortion and has been involved in China's population control program.

A House committee held an important hearing Thursday morning on the issue of "libel tourism." That's the practice of bringing libel suits against American authors in other nations, particularly the United Kingdom, where First Amendment protections do not apply and where the burden of proof is placed on the defendant rather than on the plaintiff. Saudi Arabian businessman Khalid bin Mahfouz has brought several such lawsuits, winning a default judgment against American researcher Rachel Ehrenfeld for her book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It, and forcing a Cambridge University Press to destroy copies of the...

Last May, Awad al-Qiq, the headmaster of a UN run school in Gaza, a paid employee of UNRWA and science teaher, had more on his mind than teaching science to kids. He also applied his knowledge of science, as it was, to the science of making rockets for the terrorist group Islamic Jihad. Take note that this man was highly educated. His terrorist mindset was not shaped by poverty or a lack of education, but by Islamist indoctrination.

The Republic neither recognizes, nor salaries, nor subsidizes any religion." So says the 1905 French law on the separation of church and state. Yet nowadays officials do everything in their power to promote the construction of mosques — even providing sweetheart land deals that push the bounds of legality. A report finds that 30% of the funding for mosques in France can be traced to public coffers. While one Muslim leader credits "divine will," the real driver is politics: The mayors involved sometimes want more control but also to win votes in tight elections. With the explosion of land prices,...

Higher Ed Ka-ching by: Heather Latham, January 27, 2009 The argument that higher education funding stimulates economic growth because more people are getting into the workplace and earning more money, thereby spending more money was kicked on January 14, 2009, at a Cato Institute event by George Leef, Vice President for Research at the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, Barmak Nassirian, the Associate Executive Director, External Relations, at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and Neal McCluskey, the Associate Director, Center for Educational Freedom, at the Cato Institute. The moderator was Doug Lederman, the...

PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY To the Editor: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government." Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury. The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning (January 25) on ABC's THIS WEEK. In 1984, former Democrat Governor Richard Lamm...

Scientists across America are celebrating the passing of the Bush administration as the end of a dark age, a bleak stretch in which research budgets shrank and everything — stem cells, sex education, climate change, and the very origins of the Grand Canyon — became a point of conflict. President Barack Obama has ignited a new optimism among the white coats. In his inaugural speech, he promised to "restore science to its rightful place," hinting at nothing short of a renaissance in the fields of health, energy, the environment and America's schools. As a testament to that, the United States...

THERESE POLETTI'S TECH TALES Ebullience over Obama cannot mask tech's woes Commentary: Social networks all aflutter, but some start-ups hurting By Therese Poletti, MarketWatch Last update: 12:01 a.m. EST Jan. 22, 2009SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Social networks have been atwitter the past few days with opinions, observations and general jubilation about the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama, who also happens to be one of the most technologically savvy U.S. chief executives ever. But the hoopla for those inside and outside the tech business over Facebook newsfeeds, Twitter tweets, blog postings and Ustream live video belies the fact many of...

Six weeks from today, TV signals will turn digital, but a program intended to ease the transition, is out of cash. The government set aside $1.3 billion to provide $40 coupons to help people pay for the converter boxes. But less than two months before the switch, the program is out of money. If you applied for a coupon before December 31st you should be in the clear, and recieve it about four weeks after your application date. For more information on the digital switch, click on the DTV link on our homepage at www.wifr.com

Officials and board members at Pine Tree Independent School District continue to mull ways to spend $540,000 in extra state funding the district is slotted to get this year. At the top of the list: teacher pay, classroom technology and maintenance needs. Trustees are scheduled to review several options during Monday's board meeting. In a November board meeting, Superintendent Lynn Whitaker discussed using the extra funds this year for teacher bonuses. However, Whitaker said an attorney with the Texas Association of School Boards advised against that because it would go against an opinion issued by the attorney general. "A recent...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2008 – To avoid unnecessary taxpayer spending, the Defense Department is only partially funding the expansion of F-22 Raptor aircraft production, leaving the decision for further expansion to the incoming administration. John J. Young Jr., undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, told members of the air and land forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee in a Nov. 19 hearing that he has approved $50 million for advance procurement for four F-22s. DoD will include the purchase of these four aircraft in the second fiscal 2009 supplemental budget request, he said. The decision...

Major Sebastian Morley is understood to be disgusted over the deaths of four his soldiers who were killed when their lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover hit a landmine in Helmand province earlier this year. Defence sources insisted that his departure was for "purely personal reasons". However, it is understood that he was unhappy at the continued use of the Snatch, despite its obvious vulnerability.

From ACORN's web site: http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12342 ACORN is a non-profit, non-partisan social justice organization with national headquarters in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. To maintain independence, ACORN does not accept government funding and is not tax exempt. From House/Senate bill and laws search: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c110:5:./temp/~c1109ELV8i:e647497: H.R.3221 Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate) SEC. 2401. HOUSING COUNSELING RESOURCES. There are appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated for the fiscal year 2008, for an additional amount for the `Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation—Payment to the Neighborhood Reinvestment...