Current Events - July 7, 2013

Obama's Economy Hard on Youth, Unemployment Hits 16.1%

The June jobs report shows that 195,000 new jobs were created, keeping the national unemployment rate at 7.6%. Wall Street and national economists expected that new jobs would hit 165,000, so the extra 30,000 more jobs than expected is a welcome surprise. 

 But is this just another short-term gain for the U.S. economy? According to the national non-partisan you advocacy organizations, Generation Opportunity, the unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds is at a staggering 16.1%.

 The group announced these numbers in their Millennial Jobs Report for June 2013, which also reported that in the same age group, the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 23.7%, 13.2% for Hispanics, and 11.6% for women

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/07/05/Obama-s-Economy-Hard-on-Youth-Unemployment-Hits-16-1 

Report: Social Security Bankruptcy Coming Faster Than Expected

A new report from the Heritage Foundation finds that, historically, estimates of the solvency of Social Security have been overly optimistic.


As Heritage economics analyst Rachel Greszler writes:

This year’s Social Security trustees report was released with little fanfare, as the projected date of Social Security’s financial insolvency held steady at 2033. Many analysts and lawmakers have pointed to 20 years of alleged solvency as an excuse to delay meaningful Social Security reform. However, if history is any guide to future solvency, the Social Security program could become insolvent much sooner than 2033.

Over the past five years alone, the projected date of Social Security insolvency has declined by eight years. This most recent decline in projected insolvency is largely the result of the 2007–2008 recession. While some of the sources of reduced solvency—such as lower economic growth, lower wages, increased disability incidence, and lower birth rates—are hopefully temporary, other consequences of the recession are unlikely to be reversed. For example, the Social Security trustees now project lower average hours of work and higher rates of disability incidence well into the future, and the lifetime earnings of the long-term unemployed are likely to be permanently lower.

They've illustrated the rapidly declining solvency of Social Security projections in a handy chart: 

As Greszler writes, this is a strong impetus to begin to enact reforms sooner rather than later. While progressives like Paul Krugman believe that the program could be fixed with minor reforms - and much futher down the line - the political will that will be needed to reform the program outside of mere tax increases is going to be gargantuan. Delay is only an option for those that think the political process can be magically circumvented.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/kevinglass/2013/07/07/report-social-security-bankruptcy-coming-faster-than-expected-n1634669

An "Historic" President

President Obama is “historic.” That refrain has been beaten into our heads time and again since Jan. 20, 2009. This is historic, that is historic. Everything is historic. We’d probably know even more “historic” stuff if only we – and not the National Security Agency – had the job of reading journalists’ private email. But they’re right, Barack Obama is an historic president, and the Hindenburg was an historic dirigible. 

What we hear far less about in the media is the fact that, by almost every method of measure, this historic administration has been an unmitigated “historic” disaster. 

With the latest round of unemployment numbers, we’ve just passed the longest recorded stretch of unemployment above 7.5 percent. We’re well on the way to nationalizing 20 percent of the nation’s economy and making the federal government the sole arbiter of our health care. We’ve turned out backs on allies and embraced enemies. Things have gone so horribly wrong that the only thing missing to make this truly “historic” is news President Obama has taken up the fiddle. 

It was announced this week, conveniently at the start of a long holiday weekend, that President Obama was delaying the start of the employer mandate portion of his signature legislative accomplishment – the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. By delaying the implementation of this portion of the law, something not provided for in the law itself, the president has moved from ignoring laws passed by his predecessors (DOMA, immigration) into the rarified “historic” air of ignoring laws he passed himself.
But more than the historic aspect of it, it’s incredibly damaging to millions of Americans, which may well be the point of the action.

Obamacare has always been a means more than an end. The progressive dream of a single-payer health care system is the end, but it’s an end the American people never would accept all at once. But, if the system in which they found themselves failed so miserably, maybe even collapsed, single-payer would be a much easier sell. 

Here’s how it could play out.

Obamacare was a mess from inception, one that would never work. Costs for both consumers and the government skyrocketed when the opposite not only was promised but offered as one of the main justifications for passage. Another was to provide coverage to the uninsured, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates that even when fully implemented Obamacare would leave 30 million Americans without health insurance. 

With those problems unaddressed, the system would collapse eventually anyway, but an eventuality isn’t soon enough for progressives. People with insurance would be unhappy with it and the costs, but people adapt. Unless, that is, the system were nudged to fail even more spectacularly than it already is going to. And sooner. 

Rising costs for consumers were anticipated, even hoped for, but those will be blamed on “greedy insurance companies” – much like gas tax hikes are blamed on “greedy oil companies” rather than the hidden hand of government. Even layoffs to avoid the 50-employee Obamacare mandate would be blamed on “greedy corporations.” And larger companies dropping insurance would be blamed on the greed of them being willing to pay a $2,000- to $3,000-per-employee fine rather than pay for $10,000 to $12,000 family health insurance plans. 

But companies dumping employees isn’t enough. The Obama administration’s move to delay the employer mandate by a year incentivizes employers to drop their employee insurance coverage sooner. 

Think about it this way – Most employers will end up spending more on health insurance for their employees since they’d have to provide plans that comply with the new Obamacare rules. Many will eventually have to dump their employees out of financial necessity, which will open them up to the government’s fine. But now they have a year where they don’t have to pay that fine AND don’t have to provide insurance. That’s a $10,000- to $15,000-per-head bottom-line swing for companies with more than 50 employees next year. Why wouldn’t they avail themselves of that opportunity? 

The party of “Occupy Wall Street” just gave a massive gift to corporations. 

While trying to overturn the Citizens United decision, those who mockingly tattoo “corporations are not people” on their souls just exempted corporations from a mandate they are still forcing upon the people. And those people, we the people, are going to have to purchase health insurance whether our employers subsidize it or not. 

More people will be forced into state level insurance exchanges, which will be expensive bureaucratic messes. Their failure and rising prices will be blamed on “greedy insurance companies.” All the while, waiting to swoop in to save us again will be what is always there – the very same government that created the mess in the first place. Big government fails and progressives are at the ready with an even bigger government solution. We’ve seen it in the ever-expanding “war on poverty” and we’re seeing it now. Only unlike LBJ, Barack Obama is emboldened by a throne-sniffing media uninterested in anything beyond copying and pasting progressive talking points under their bylines. 

This plan works only if people have the time to get used to the individual mandate. As such, Congress should act to either delay that as well (repeal isn’t an option at this point) or force the administration to obey the law as written and enforce the employer mandate starting January of next year. The only way for people to be made fully aware of just how disastrous Obamacare is would be to have it all hit them at once. It won’t be pleasant, it won’t be easy, but it’s the difference between the frog dropped in boiling water and the one in the water as it’s brought to a boil. 

The full-force of this law’s destructive nature hitting the American public and economy at once is repeal’s only hope. And repeal of a president’s signature legislative accomplishment, especially one with that president’s name married to it, would truly be “historic.” 

http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2013/07/07/an-historic-president-n1635237/page/full  

Government won't verify income claims for Obamacare subsidies

What's worse is that, according to Forbes, the administration tried to bury the announcement that the government is going to trust people to be honest about their income when applying for Obamacare subsidies in the Federal Register. No formal announcement of this open invitation to fraud was made by the Obama White House.

If you thought the delay in the employer mandate was bad news for Obamacare, just wait. On Friday, Sarah Kliff and Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post discovered that the Obama administration had buried in the Federal Register the announcement that the government won't be able to verify whether or not applicants for Obamacare's insurance exchange subsidies are actually qualified for the aid, in the 16 states that are setting up their own exchanges. Instead, until at least 2015, these states will be able to "accept the applicant's attestation [regarding eligibility] without further verification."

If you've been following the latest news around Obamacare, you know that on Tuesday evening, just before the Independence Day holiday, the White House announced that it would be delaying the implementation of the health law's employer mandate--requiring all firms with more than 50 employees to provide health coverage to their workers--until 2015.

I, and several others at the time, said "wait a minute." According to the law, you aren't eligible for Obamacare's subsidies if your employer has offered you what the government considers "affordable" coverage. But if employers are no longer going to report whether or not they've offered "affordable" coverage, how can the government verify whether or not workers are eligible for subsidies?

Not only won't the federal government check to see if you're trying to defraud the taxpayer, they've told states they can relax the scrutinty as well:

After encountering "legislative and operational barriers," the federal government will not require the District and the 16 states that are running their own marketplaces to verify a consumer's statement that they do not receive health insurance from their employer.

"The exchange may accept the applicant's attestation regarding enrollment in eligible employer-sponsored plan . . . without further verification," according to the final rule.

The federal government will, however, conduct an audit for the states where it is managing the new insurance Web portal.

The rule also scaled back states' responsibilities to double-check the income levels that consumers report, which determine any tax subsidy they receive.

While initial regulations had proposed an audit of each consumer who reported an income significantly lower than what federal records indicated, the final rule scaled that back to an audit of a statistically significant sample of such cases.
For individuals who are not part of that sample, "the Exchange may accept the attestation of projected annual household income without further verification," it said.

So, if you feel lucky and can avoid the audit, you're in. It's just one more indication that Obama and the Democrats aren't serious about managing the people's purse in any kind of a respnsible manner.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/07/government_wont_verify_income_claims_for_obamacare_subsidies.html#ixzz2YO3YbEvZ

Is the FISA Court more powerful than SCOTUS?

The New York Times has a fairly shocking story about how the FISA Court has built up a body of secret law that has enabled the NSA and other intelligence agencies to gather massive amounts of data on citizens.

The question raised by this revelation is simple: Can the Supreme Court review these decisons? And if not, does this make the FISA Court the last word on our privacy rights?

In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation's surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say.

The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny, according to current and former officials familiar with the court's classified decisions.

The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said.

Last month, a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, leaked a classified order from the FISA court, which authorized the collection of all phone-tracing data from Verizon business customers. But the court's still-secret decisions go far beyond any single surveillance order, the officials said.
"We've seen a growing body of law from the court," a former intelligence official said. "What you have is a common law that develops where the court is issuing orders involving particular types of surveillance, particular types of targets."

In one of the court's most important decisions, the judges have expanded the use in terrorism cases of a legal principle known as the "special needs" doctrine and carved out an exception to the Fourth Amendment's requirement of a warrant for searches and seizures, the officials said.

How nice of the FISA Court to tell us about this "exception" to our Fourth Amendment rights against searches without a warrant. When was our government going to get around to telling us that a super-secret court was redefining the Constitution right under our noses?

Who died and made them the Supreme Court? And if the FISA Court is going to exercise this kind of power without the ability for anyone to challenge their rulings in the Supreme Court, what's the point of having a high court anyway?

A republic...if you can keep it.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/07/is_the_fisa_court_more_powerful_than_scotus.html#ixzz2YO2svNa3
 

New York Times profile scrubs Valerie Jarrett's radical ties

Family closely linked to Bill Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis

 A New York Times profile of Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s top aide, glosses over her family’s radical history, including ties to a top communist activist and to former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.

The profile, from September 2012, received newfound media attention earlier this week after BuzzFeed.com reported White House efforts to defend Jarrett behind the scenes by circulating glowing talking points about her to other administration officials who were candidates to be interviewed for the Times piece.

The talking points, titled “The Magic of Valerie,” were documented in an upcoming book by Times reporter Mark Leibovich.

“The magic of Valerie is her intellect and her heart,” read the document.

“She is an incredibly kind, caring and thoughtful person with a unique ability to pinpoint the voiceless and shine a light on them and the issues they and the President care about with the ultimate goal of making a difference in people’s lives,” memo said.

“Valerie is the perfect combination of smart, savvy and innovative.

“Valerie has an enormous capacity for both empathy and sympathy.”

“Valerie is someone here who other people inside the building know they can trust.”

Ultimately, the New York Times profile of Jarrett, while mostly positive, was not without criticism.

Reported the Times: “Some of Mr. Obama’s most senior advisers worry – perhaps not entirely without jealousy – that her direct access to the president has at times led to half-baked decision making and unclear lines of authority.”

Radical family ties
However, the Times did not report any of Jarrett’s radical family connections.

Regarding Jarrett’s mother, the Times says only that “her mother had a Chicago street named after her for her work in early childhood education.”

As WND was first to report, Jarrett’s mother, Barbara Taylor Bowman, founded an education initiative alongside Ayers’ family that was funded by Ayers, Obama and ultimately the 2009 “stimulus” legislation.
The Chicago school, the Erikson Institute, focuses on training people who work in early childhood development.

Besides founding Erikson, Bowman was president of the institute from 1994 to 2001 and served as the school’s Irving B. Harris professor of child development.

One of the Erikson Institute’s former trustees and members of the executive committee is the late Thomas Ayers, father of Bill Ayers.

Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers’ wife, also served on the Erikson board.

In his 1998 book, “A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court,” Bill Ayers calls Jarrett’s mother, Bowman, a “neighbor and a friend.”

Obama and Bill Ayers once funded Erikson together. The Erikson Institute was among the first 35 school partnerships awarded funds in December 1995 by the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Ayers was a founder of the Annenberg Challenge; Obama was hired in 1995 as the group’s first chairman.

In 2009, Erickson was awarded just shy of $5 million from Obama’s so-called stimulus legislation.

Frank Marshall Davis connection
The Times profile briefly mentions Jarrett’s grandfather and father but not her father-in-law, who may have been instrumental in introducing her to Obama and who himself is tied to the president.

The profile states her grandfather, Robert Taylor, “built much of Chicago’s public housing,” while “her father was a pioneering doctor.”

The Times reported Obama and Valerie Jarrett “met more than two decades ago, when Ms. Jarrett – a lawyer, like both Obamas – offered Mrs. Obama a job in the Chicago mayor’s office.”

However, Jarrett may have been introduced to the Obamas through her father-in-law, a communist sympathizer who worked with Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis, as WND was first to report.
Jarrett’s father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett, was an associate of Frank Marshall Davis, the controversial Communist Party activist who has been identified as an early influence on Obama.

Vernon Jarrett and Davis worked together in 1940 in a Communist Party-dominated organization, the Citizen’s Committee to Aid Packing House Workers. The group’s own correspondence, previously uncovered by the New Zeal blog, describes its communist influence. Many of its leaders were tied to the Communist Party.

The pair also frequented the South Side Community Art Center, which was dominated by communists. In addition, Davis and Vernon Jarrett worked in the late 1940s on the communist-influenced, black-run Chicago Defender newspaper.

In 1948, Jarrett started a radio show, “Negro Newsfront,” and went on to become the Chicago Tribune’s first black syndicated columnist.

A Washington Post obituary of Vernon Jarrett notes he “stoked the political embers in Chicago that led to the 1983 election of the city’s first African-American mayor, Harold Washington.”

“Vernon Jarrett was a key influence in Washington’s decision to run for the Chicago mayoralty and remained a key supporter through his four-year tenure,” the newspaper reported.

Obama has hailed Washington’s victory as a motivation for him to move to Chicago from New York. Washington was involved in communist-dominated circles in Chicago.

Vernon Jarrett clearly watched the rise of Obama as an activist. When Obama worked for Project Vote to register black voters with the intent of aiding the senatorial campaign of Carol Moseley Braun, Jones took note. Obama later took over Braun’s Senate seat.

Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times in 1992, Jarrett said: “Good news! Good news! Project Vote, a collectivity of 10 church-based community organizations dedicated to black voter registration, is off and running. … If Project Vote is to reach its goal of registering 150,000 out of an estimated 400,000 unregistered blacks statewide, ‘it must average 10,000 rather than 7,000 every week,’ says Barack Obama, the program’s executive director.”

Valerie Jarrett married Vernon’s son, William Robert Jarrett, in 1983.

In 1987, she got her start in politics, working for Washington as deputy corporation counsel for finance and development. She was deputy chief of staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time she hired Michelle Robinson, who then was engaged to Obama.

Valerie Jarrett went on to run the finances for Obama’s successful Senate bid in 2004, the year 

http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/new-york-times-profile-scrubs-valerie-jarretts-radical-ties/

How to Repeal the 16^th and 17^th Amendments

Americans may be able to regain control over their federal government by moving their respective individual state legislatures to invalidate the 16^th and 17^th Amendments to the United States Constitution.  Essentially, this is a vote to reverse ratification of an Amendment without a Constitutional Convention.

Repeal of the 16^th Amendment starves the federal beast by depriving it of its consumption of money from the states and the taxpayers through income taxes.  States could exercise better control over how or even if their money is spent.

Repeal of the 17^th Amendment makes United States senators directly appointed by the state legislatures, as they were at our nation's founding, and representative of the will of each state and its citizens.  This action would check the federal government's proclivity to pass laws binding the states to unfunded mandates.  It would increase the sovereignty of the several states and restore true federalism back into our system of government.

The states can do this by individual vote; this way, a Constitutional Convention and the subsequent dangers presents to liberty can be avoided.  Three-fourths of the state legislatures would have to vote to repeal each or any Amendment.  Once each state votes to invalidate an Amendment, the vote is sent to the Archivist of the National Archives.  The result would be a return to the Constitution as it existed before the now repealed Amendments were included.

The United States of America was founded as a representative republic, where several sovereign states voluntarily joined under a common federal sovereign to better guarantee the unalienable rights of "We the People." This federal government was to be strictly limited to the enumerated powers given to it under the Constitution of the United States by the sovereignty of the several states and the people, who themselves are sovereign individuals.

The federal government is supposed to be strictly limited in power to only those things authorized in the Constitution.  The several states were to always enjoy plenary power -- that is, power over everything not specifically given over to the federal government.  Any powers not delegated to the several states were to be with the people as individuals.

Today, the federal government has been allowed to grow in size and scope of authority where it now imposes its will in every way over our individual daily lives.  It has usurped the plenary powers of the several states.  Every issue making news today seems to have a federal solution proposed or enacted instead of allowing the states, which are closer to the people within them, to address those issues.

The root of the current problem is that the federal government bends and contorts and stretches the plain meaning of the U.S. Constitution.  It is allowed to do this, in part, by its taxing authority.  The federal government taxes almost everything, taking the wealth of each state and of every individual for its own use.

The federal government redistributes this wealth as it sees fit to enact controls over the several states and the people through various administrative agencies, policies, and programs.  The purported original need for an administrative agency, policy, or program is rarely, if ever, met.

 In fact, the original need becomes modified with other causes and objectives requiring these agencies to grow; new policies and programs must be promulgated to better meet real or imagined demands.

Thus, the system is self-perpetuating.  Without proper checks by the Congress, the administrative state becomes all-encompassing, oppressive, and in some respects, tyrannical.

But Congress has repeatedly failed to act.  It benefits as an institution because the money the government gets is first distributed by its own members.  This is properly so if each respective branch of our government works according to separation of powers as intended by the Framers.

Too often, the "separate powers" of the federal government seem to work in unison against the will of the American people.  It is in those times that the Framers asserted the American people must respectfully move to regain control and place each house in proper order.

An effective method of dealing with this is for the several states to "starve" the federal Leviathan by reducing or denying its lifeblood-money.  Prior to the enactment of the 16^th Amendment to the United States Constitution, taxes were paid to the federal government by apportionment based on population, and through certain direct fees (taxes) on customs, alcohol, and other select commodities.

The 16^th Amendment allows the federal government the authority to directly tax the incomes of all individuals by whatever type and means necessary.  Repeal of this amendment is necessary for the several states to regain financial control over federal spending.  Cutting the money tap will in effect reduce or eliminate federal borrowing and annual debt.  It will also bring the power that comes with distributing that money back to the influence of the states, closer to the people.

With monies reduced, administrative bureaucracy, unnecessary policies, and unneeded programs will also reduce.  Some may be eliminated.  A strictly limited federal government exercising only its constitutionally permitted powers restores trust and is beneficial to the American people.

Likewise, the 17^th Amendment to the United States Constitution now allows for the direct election of United States senators.  The Senate was originally the part of Congress that represented the several states and their respective state's interests.

The House of Representatives originally, as today, were the part of Congress elected directly by the people.  With the Senate directly elected by the people instead of appointed by each state's legislature, the Senate has become a de facto extended-term House of Representatives.

 Senators rarely represent the interests of their home state today, as demonstrated by their voting for huge indebtedness as a national issue and voting for unfunded mandates adversely affecting the state they purport to represent, among many other self-interest issues.

The United States Constitution can have amendments added to it via two methods: the first is by a proposed amendment approved by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and approved by two-thirds of the Senate.  The proposed amendment then goes before each state's legislature for majority approval.  When three fourths of all states (38) ratify the proposed amendment, the amendment then becomes part of the United States Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land.  The votes of each of the legislatures of the several states submit their letter of decision to the Archivist of the United States, in the National Archives.  This method has been used exclusively since the first Constitutional Convention, and it includes all amendments (27) in existence today.

The second method is for two thirds of the states (33) to call a Constitutional Convention, propose an amendment, and then have it successfully ratified by a minimum of three fourths of the several states (38).  The amendment then becomes part of the United States Constitution.  The votes of each of the legislatures of the several states submit their letter of decision to the Archivist of the United States, in the National Archives.

The problem with the second method is the lack of control that might be exhibited by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention.  A group intent on radically changing our Constitution could do away with many protections we enjoy today or grant certain offices or persons in government additional powers and authority never intended.  Even though any proposed amendment proceeding forth would still have to be ratified by three-fourths of all the states to become part of the constitution, the danger to this republic is unknown.

A unique consideration would cause the legislatures of the several states to vote to de-ratify or nullify the 16^th and then 17^th Amendments.  This should be accomplished with little danger to the republic in that once three fourths of the several states (38) vote to de-ratify an amendment, the Constitution would return to its former status as to law.

Since the action would not involve a Constitutional Convention, there would be no new amendment(s).  Any changes would be perceived by the legislatures of the several states and would be close to the people for comment and redress of grievances.

 http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/how_to_repeal_the_16th_and_17th_amendments.html#ixzz2YOA842EM

Best-Selling Author’s Bold Suggestion: It’s Time for Tea Party to Consider a New Name — Here’s Why

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor made a bold suggestion while closing out the Independent Speaker series at Glenn Beck’s “Man in the Moon” weekend on Saturday.

It may be time for the Tea Party to drop the title “Tea Party,” he says.

The author, who describes himself as “a Tea Party guy through and through,” explained that conservatives have much to learn from the tactics of the left.  ACORN didn’t have to change its work when it came under fire several years ago, he noted — it just got a new name.

“I’m throwing this out there…” Thor told the audience.  “Do we need to consider adopting another name so that we can reach out to young people…get beyond the stigma?  We don’t have to change our values.  Do you think ACORN changed its values…?”

The audience seemed almost completely on board, throwing up a cheer immediately.

Thor did not suggest a new name for the Tea Party, but spoke about how conservatives can go about “reclaiming” the Republican Party by utilizing the same tactics as the Democrats.

The audience may not agree with the opinions and policies of those on the left, but Thor said it’s undeniable that they have a certain talent when it comes to messaging and organizing.

“Success leaves clues, and if you sow the same seeds, you’ll reap the same rewards,” he said.

One of Thor’s ideas was to take out billboards in every black community across the United States reading: “There’s a limit to what the Democrat Party can do for you, and you’ve been seeing it for decades.” Below would be statistics like the black unemployment rate, incarceration rate, and more.  He noted that Democrats always warn Republicans about being on “the wrong side of history” in various issues — Democrat stances in history could also be on the billboards, from slavery to Jim Crow laws to the Ku Klux Klan.

“There are gains that the Republicans can be making in those precincts, and I don’t know why they’re not trying harder,” he said.

Another place where conservatives can use the tactics of the left, as he noted earlier, is in the language.

“Democrats are so good at this!” Thor said, suggesting the audience consider using the terms “tax fairness” instead of tax reform, or “entitlement security” instead of entitlement reform.

And on an organizational level, Thor said it is vitally important to gain control of the local precincts, since that’s where primaries are won and candidates are selected.

“If you control the precincts, you control the Republican Party,” he continued.  “It is the one concrete thing you can do.”

Thor said that’s how the left turned Colorado from red to blue.  They’ll either move on to Texas next, or conservatives can go about reversing the process, he said.

Thor was so adamant about understanding the strategies of the left that he urged the audience to make Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” a number one bestseller on Amazon this summer.

“Anyone that goes to battle goes to battle knowing the mindset and tactics of their enemies,” he explained.

Thor repeatedly emphasized that it’s not a struggle between Republicans and Democrats, however.

Most Americans are proud of their country, he said.  The risk is from progressives, who he says “seek [nothing] short of their own revolution, one that will purposefully instill tyranny in order to instill social equality, which is just a fancy term for socialism.”

“There is no justice in social justice, and there is no equality in social equality,” he added.

Concluding on a positive note, Thor urged the audience: “Let’s learn, let’s study what works.  Learn why the Democrats have been so successful.  Because your contemporaries on the other side of the aisle –that’s what they did.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/06/best-selling-authors-bold-suggestion-its-time-for-tea-party-to-consider-a-new-name-heres-why/

PK'S NOTE: If I had kids, I would be home-schooling and here's some reasons why:

The Daily Caller presents: The first annual High School Stupidity Awards

The dog days of summer are upon us. High school students across the country are enjoying their time off, which means that The Daily Caller can offer far fewer stories about stupid and otherwise outrageous occurrences on campus.

The time is right, then, to celebrate the academic year that was. Here are the stupidest, most outrageous and most cringe-worthy high school moments of 2012-13.

Overland High School (Aurora, Colo.): World’s greatest math teacher ever
Carly McKinney (aka Carly Crunk Bear) is the 23-year-old high school math teacher from Aurora, Colorado who took to Twitter in January with half-nude photos of herself, chatter about getting heroically stoned and an admission that she was tweeting instead of working during school hours. She also tweeted to the world that she had marijuana in her car. The Crunk Bear did not face charges for her boasting. Sadly, however, she was ultimately fired for her hijinks. (RELATED: Revealed: The hot Twitter pics and posts from the world’s greatest high school math teacher)

Chapin High School (Chapin, S.C.): Most bizarre flag-stomping to make some baffling point about symbolism
South Carolina honors English teacher Scott Compton was fired because he threw an American flag on the floor and stomped on it in front of his students during three different class periods. “He proceeds to take down the American flag, and said, ‘This is a symbol, but it’s only a piece of cloth. It doesn’t mean anything,’ and then he throws it down on the floor and then stomps on it, repeatedly,” said the father of a student at Chapin High. Compton ultimately received a whopping $85,000 in a settlement with the Lexington-Richland 5 school district. (RELATED: South Carolina teacher on leave for stomping on American flag in front of class)

P.S. 211 (New York, N.Y.): Most embarrassingly stupid sacking of a teacher
A junior-high school Spanish teacher, Petrona Smith, filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012 because of a misunderstanding over the word “negro.” The 65-year-old, non-tenured teacher maintains that she was instructing her class about how to say the various basic colors in Spanish. The word “negro” naturally came up because “negro” is the Spanish word for “black.” A seventh-grade student in the class took offense at the term, however, believing the word to be a racial slur. But wait — it gets better. Smith, a native of the West Indies, is herself black. (RELATED: Black Spanish teacher claims she was fired for using the word ‘negro’ in class)

St. Pius X High School (Lincoln, Neb.): Hottest on-campus porn photo shoot
Teen porn star Valerie Dodds, who goes by the apparently erotic stage name Val Midwest, was charged with trespassing and public nudity after taking naked photos of herself at the Catholic high school she once attended. Sex toys and a crucifix were involved as well as inserted. Dodds, 19, said she chose St. Pius X High for the nighttime photo shoot as a response to students who had criticized her recent career choice. “I decided to go there and show them that I am here to stay,” she said triumphantly. After she was ticketed, Dodds returned to the school and did another photo shoot in broad daylight, this time wearing only panties and pasties over her nipples. (RELATED: Teen porn star got naked, pleasured herself with crucifix on school grounds)

Moanalua High School (Honolulu, Hawaii): Most annoying, spiteful atheist who ruined Christmas
The Hawaii Department of Education canceled a beloved annual Christmas concert by the Moanalua High School orchestra only four days before the event, following legal complaints by Mitch Kahle, founder of the Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church, because of New Hope Church’s involvement in the concert. New Hope had managed ticket sales and sold tickets to the concert at its services, sending all proceeds to charitable causes. In recent years, the church has raised more than $200,000 through ticket sales for a charity that treats poor people in Africa. (RELATED: Threat of legal action by activist organization leads state to cancel school Christmas concert)

Martin County High School (Stuart, Fla.): Sexiest English teacher
English teacher Olivia Sprauer was fired after Alfred Fabrizio, Martin County High’s principal, learned that she also worked as a professional model under the far sexier name Victoria V. James. Her modeling website and Facebook page feature numerous photos of her wearing bikinis and occasional see-through lingerie. It was too much skin for school officials. After Sprauer confirmed to Fabrizio that the images were indeed of her, the principal fired her and she was escorted out of the school. (RELATED: Florida teacher too sexy to teach)

Sebastian River High School (Sebastian, Fla.): Biggest to-do over a lesbian relationship between two high school students
Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, rejected a deal which would have required her to plead guilty to engaging in sex with her underage girlfriend. Last November, Hunt began a romantic relationship with a 14-year-old female student. Both attended and played on the basketball team at Sebastian River High. Since the age of consent in Florida is 16 years of age, Hunt was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious battery on a child. The age difference between the two girls is three and a half years. Under the rejected deal, Hunt would not be incarcerated or listed as a sex offender. Her trial is still ongoing this summer. (RELATED: New details emerge in teen lesbian’s arrest for underage sex)

Tucson Unified School District (Tucson, Ariz.): Best judicial opinion criticizing a bunch of Chicano racists
In March, federal judge A. Wallace Tashima upheld most of a 2010 Arizona state law that prohibited school districts from offering coursework that endorses the overthrow of the United States government or stokes resentment toward a race or class of people. The ruling stems from the Tucson school district’s intervention to forcibly alter coursework in a controversial Mexican-American studies program. The highly race-conscious program taught history, civics and literature from a pointedly Mexican-American vantage point. The judge agreed with a prior evidentiary finding by an administrative law judge that the program promoted “racial resentment against ‘whites.’” (RELATED: Federal judge: Arizona can ban classes promoting ‘racial resentment against ‘whites’)

Eastern University Academy Charter School (Philadelphia, Pa.): Most unseemly book purchased by a teacher for a student
In May, The Daily Caller located the one man in America who claimed to be blissfully unaware that the novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” is a tour de porn. That man is a high school math teacher at Philadelphia’s Eastern University Academy Charter School. He requested that students give him a list of books they wanted to read during an independent reading period. Naturally, a ninth-grade boy asked for “Fifty Shades of Grey.” The teacher then ordered it online, with his own money. The student’s mother was very upset when she discovered the smutty romance tale in her son’s book bag, though. School officials called the incident an unfortunate mistake. (RELATED: Teacher bought ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ for ninth grader; mom mad)

Delavan-Darien High School (Delavan, Wisc.): Most radical leftist indoctrination at a podunk high school
At Delavan-Darien High School in Wisconsin, the curriculum on “American Diversity” allegedly teaches students that white skin confers a set of unfair privileges. The ideas presented in the course come from a broader academic movement called critical race theory. “There is not space here to list all the ways in which white privilege plays out in our lives,” reads one paper assigned to students. Another assignment asked students to visit the toy aisle at the local Wal-Mart and count the number of white dolls. (RELATED: Public high school in Wisconsin indoctrinates students in ‘white privilege’)

Poston Butte High School (Tan Valley, Ariz.): Worst suspension for the crime of having a picture of a gun
Freshman Daniel McClaine, Jr., made the mistake of setting a picture of an AK-47 lying on a flag as the desktop background on his Poston Butte High-issued computer. He found it on the Internet and liked it, partly because he is interested in serving in the military after graduation. A teacher ratted McClaine out after noticing the Soviet-era rifle on the computer. The boy received a three-day suspension. After his father contacted the local press, though, school district officials suddenly decided that the younger McClaine could return to school. (RELATED: High school freshman suspended for having a picture of a gun)

Middleborough High School (Middleborough, Mass.): Most stunning transgender prom queen
Wearing a silver tiara and a purple sash, and clasping a bouquet of pink flowers, Middleborough High student Cody Tubman became the first transgender prom queen in the whole history of Middleborough, Mass., the cranberry capital of the world. The senior has been dressing as a woman since sophomore year. School officials have happily facilitated the cross-dressing, permitting Tubman to use female bathrooms and locker rooms freely. (RELATED: Mass. high school crowns its very first transgender prom queen)

Grosse Pointe North High School (Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan): Best example of a teachers union imposing dumb rules
Science teacher Gary Abud, the 2013-14 Michigan Teacher of the Year is “a teacher amongst teachers,” according to his school district’s superintendent, and is an outstanding professional, according to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Thanks to the anti-meritocratic compensation rules governing teachers unions in Michigan, though, Abud took home about $20,000 less than the average teacher in his district. (RELATED: ‘Teacher of the Year’ earns $20,000 less than average, thanks to union rules)

Ambridge Area School District (Ambridge, Pa.): Best rendition of the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ song that resulted in a school lockdown
A receptionist for a local eye doctor misinterpreted high school student Travis Clawson’s voicemail greeting, triggering a lockdown of several schools in a series of events that led to his arrest. The prerecorded greeting was Clawson’s imitation of part of the rap theme song from the “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” a 1990s sitcom starring a young Will Smith. At one point, the receptionist thought she heard Clawson say, “shooting people outside of the school.” The actual words to the song are: “And all shooting some b-ball outside of the school.” (RELATED: School locked down after receptionist misinterprets ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ song as threat)

Camden LEAP Academy University Charter School (Camden, N.J.): Best sloppy joe, hopefully
Michael Pastorello, the executive chef at the Camden LEAP Academy was in the news this year either for his inflated salary or perhaps because he prepares the world’s most delectable sloppy joe — certainly off the bone, perhaps with a cream basil sauce. Pastorello was pulling $95,000 a year to serve meals to approximately 1,000 students. That’s more than twice the average take-home pay of people in the area who do the same basic job. Coincidentally, he was also the live-in boyfriend of the school’s founder. (RELATED: ‘Executive chef’ at Camden, New Jersey charter school makes $95,000 a year)

Mariemont City School District (Mariemont, Ohio): Most ridiculous lawsuit filed by a teacher
High school French and Spanish teacher Maria C. Waltherr-Willard, 61, filed a disability discrimination lawsuit against her suburban Cincinnati school district, claiming a phobia of young children. Problems arose when the district reassigned her from high school to junior high. The suit also claims the district wanted her to resign because of her age. The alleged disability is pedophobia, an irrational fear or dislike of children. “It’s a tough phobia,” observed local professor Caleb Adler. (RELATED: Ohio teacher sues school district over child-phobia ‘disability’)

Linden High School (Linden, Calif.): Best detective work by a high school sophomore

After students kept noticing items disappearing from their bags all year during gym class, crime stopper Justine Betti decided to do some investigating. She wedged herself inside a school locker and waited patiently for the perpetrator to strike. Betti was surprised to find out that a popular gym teacher with some three decades of experience was the backpack bandit. Fearing that no one would believe her, she did what any good gumshoe would do: She returned to the scene of the crime, hid again, and set up a video surveillance operation. (RELATED: High school sophomore goes undercover to catch teacher looting backpacks)

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