Tuesday, March 31, 2015

TTP: Bad Trade Agreement Ahead

Using Phony Job and Export Claims to Push TPP Fast Track
Written by William F. Jasper, Tuesday, 24 March 2015
The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) has discredited itself repeatedly with promised benefits from NAFTA and other free trade agreements that failed spectacularly, but it is back with more of the same to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And the media continue to lap it up and regurgitate it uncritically.
A typical example of this media complicity is a March 23 article in the Dodge City, Kansas, High Plains Journal entitled, “Senate struggles to advance Obama's trade promotion authority.”
The Journal article, which is tilted to support Trade Promotion Authority (TPA, also known as Fast Track) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), says, “According to an analysis supported by the Peterson Institute, a TPP agreement provides global income benefits of an estimated $223 billion per year by 2025.” “Real income benefits to the United States are an estimated $77 billion per year,” the PIIE continues. “The TPP could generate an estimated $305 billion in additional world exports per year, by 2025, including an additional $123.5 billion in U.S. exports.”
http://67.227.136.223/~adserve/www/delivery/lg.php?bannerid=600&campaignid=279&zoneid=334&loc=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenewamerican.com%2Feconomy%2Feconomics%2Fitem%2F20509-using-phony-job-and-export-claims-to-push-tpp-fast-track&cb=9cdd7d48cbMore PIIE in the sky
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Simply rush the TPP pact through on the TPA Fast Track and America will be rolling in green in no time. Well, as the common wisdom advises, if it sounds too good to be true — it probably is. Especially if the carnival barker making the pitch is the same fast-talking fellow who last year tricked you into signing a contract without reading the fine print obligating you to indentured servitude for life! In case you didn’t notice, the PIIE “experts” promoting TPP are the same carnival barkers that made the same types of promises for NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO, and other trade agreements.
Back at the time of the great battle over NAFTA, for instance, NAFTA supporters regularly cited studies by PIIE economists Gary Hufbauer and Jeffrey Schott to show that NAFTA would provide a huge boost to U.S. jobs and exports. In their influential 1993 PIIE paper, “NAFTA: An Assessment,” they predicted that under NAFTA “U.S. exports to Mexico will continue to outstrip Mexican exports to the United States, leading to a U.S. trade surplus with Mexico of about $7 [billion] to $9 billion annually by 1995.” Moreover, they said that the U.S. trade surplus with Mexico would rise to $12 billion annually between 2000 and 2010.
That was the PIIE promise, but what was the reality? In 1993, the year before NAFTA went into effect, the United States had a $1.66 billion trade surplus with Mexico; by 1995, the first year after NAFTA had entered into force, that changed to a $15.8 billion deficit . The deficits have escalated ever since, soaring to $24.5 billion in 2000, $49.8 billion in 2005, and $74.7 billion in 2007. From 2010 on, the deficits have been running in the $60+ billion range annually.
Instead of hundreds of billions of dollars surplus, we’ve gotten more than half a trillion dollars in trade deficit with Mexico. As we have reported previously:
In 1993, the year before NAFTA, we imported around 225,000 cars and trucks from Mexico. By 2005, our imports of Mexican-made vehicles had tripled to 700,000 vehicles annually, and in 2012 Mexico’s export of vehicles to the United States surpassed 1.4 million. Chrysler, Ford, and GM transferred major production facilities (and jobs) from the United States to Mexico.
The record with Canada, our other NAFTA partner, is similar. In 1993, our annual trade deficit with Canada was $10.7 billion; by 1995 it had ballooned to $17.1 billion, and by 2005 to $78.4 billion.
So how does the PIIE come up with its rosy statistical predictions for the TPP? The same way they came up with their bogus NAFTA numbers, most likely. They simply invent them. The “prestigious” PIIE’s repetitive spectacular failures calls to mind the quip popularized by Mark Twain: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Related article and videos:
Comments
TTP would be another disaster like NAFTA, WTO, etc. These offshored US jobs paying over $25 per hour.  This next one will offshore US jobs paying over $10 per hour. Where do we go then ?  Nobody else is this stupid. 
Germany protects their core industries like automobiles and lots of production machines and they will continue to have an economy. They have tariffs. They tax foreign goods coming in to be purchased by Germans.
German voters insisted on keeping their own family owned bakeries and breweries, resulting in world-class baked goods and beer. They didn’t offshore their $25 per hour jobs.  They did get hurt with excessive immigration and alternative energy costs, but they have stopped the solar and wind mal-investment and are becoming cautious on immigration.  It’s expensive there, but there is still a middle-class.
US voters need to clear their heads and state our terms to our politicians.  We need to insist on a return to our free market system.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Labor Participation by Age

The real slack in the U.S. economy, by Robert Romano
“You’re a slacker!” That’s Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore’s apparent take on young people failing to enter the workforce — reminiscent of the depiction of Principal Strickland in Back to the Future — writing an op-ed in The Washington Times, “Young Americans opting out of workforce.”
In it, Moore points to declining labor participation by young people at the same time job openings are plentiful. The question is why?
“The labor-force participation rate is falling fastest among workers under 30,” Moore writes, noting “negative attitudes toward blue-collar work,” and young people graduating college without “basic” and “useful” skills.
There are plenty of jobs for “skilled and reliable mechanics, welders, engineers, electricians, plumbers, computer technicians and nurses,” says Moore, but young people are not taking those jobs. Apparently, because they don’t want to.
What Moore does not tell you is that the employment-population ratio for those aged 25 to 34 is as high as it was in 1986, at 76.8 percent. It peaked in 2000 at close to 82 percent and again in 2007 near 80 percent before it slumped in the Great Recession. After bottoming at 73.7 percent in December 2009 — slackers! — it has rebounded to its current level.
So, did 25 to 34 year olds become less ambitious right at the same time the worst recession since the Great Depression occurred?
No, because this followed the same trend as 35 to 44 year olds and 45 to 54 year olds. More slackers, apparently. On the margins, 25 to 34 year olds were no less likely to participate in the workforce as their older counterparts. Meaning, whatever the problem is, it is not unique to younger Americans.
Most of the drop off in young people with jobs actually occurred in the 16 to 24 year old demographic, from about a 54 percent employment-population ratio in 2007 to less than 45 percent by 2010.
Again, what Moore does not mention is that this is not at all unusual for young people in the periods that follow big recessions.
The employment-population ratios of 16 to 24 year olds took by far the biggest hits in the recessions of the early 1980’s, 1991, 2001, and 2007 through 2009. The number of jobs in this age group tended to drop by about 6 percent on average for each recession, compared to about 3.5 percent for 35 to 44 year olds, and less than 2 percent for everyone else.
Why, it’s almost as if during recessions, those youngest and with the least experience are the first people to be laid off.
Finally, Moore cites a high demand for blue-collar labor today, but fails to mention that demand for labor is up pretty much across the board, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which shows nearly 5 million job openings nationwide.
Moore also fails to note that the trend of job openings is cyclical. Previous peaks occurred in March 2007 at 4.66 million, and in January 2001 at 5.3 million.
All of which has nothing to do with a lack of ambition to work in blue collar jobs. If anything, the number of job openings today could be a flashing light warning of an overheating economy.
So, it might be fashionable to chide younger people for being lackadaisical — when is that not fashionable? — and yet it ignores some of the important indicators of what labor markets are really telling us right now.
Namely, that young people and everyone else have barely begun to recover from the last recession, and it looks like the whole thing is about to pop again.
Robert Romano is the senior editor of Americans for Limited Government.
Comments
It’s still true that 93 million working-age US citizens don’t have jobs. I blame excessive immigration policy for the past 25 years for most of it.  The majority of these immigrants  have taken retail jobs that once belonged to high school and college students and service jobs that once belonged to the working-poor. 
Some of those US citizens with no jobs include moms, who are not working.  Many dropped out of the workforce to raise the kids.  They will return to work part-time when they can.  A growing number of these moms homeschool their kids.
The hardest hit by excessive immigration are the young and the working-poor. The young are denied the early work experience they need and the working poor are denied raises in pay due to immigrant competition.
This article measures “job openings” from the DOL, which makes me question their use in this article. Jobs requiring engineering and technical skills have tightened job specs to describe the “perfect” candidate.  Companies prefer expert proficiency in the latest technologies with multiple skill sets, so no one is really qualified yet. 
Every year, we are immigrating tens of thousands of Muslim and South American refugees with no technical skills and putting them on welfare.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
 

Military Refuse to Disarm US Citizens

Navy Vet: Sign Papers Swearing to Disarm Americans or Else
SEALs told to sign paperwork agreeing to gun confiscations (Infowars) – Former Navy SEAL named “Landshark” calls to talk about his experience in the military (1995-1996) being handed a stack of papers to sign in order to keep their positions. The documents required that, if the SEALs were asked, they would agree to go door to door in America to confiscate firearms.
See InfoWars video at: http://www.teaparty.org/navy-vet-sign-papers-swearing-disarm-americans-else-91963/
Comments
There are many reports of this sort of thing. Hundreds of senior military officers were “retired” because they would not sign this paper.  They regarded disarming US citizens as a violation of the US Constitution.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Religious Freedom


Republicans Give Tax Increases and Treat Religion as a Lesser Right by Erick Ericson

If the government wants to curtail your freedom of speech, it must have a compelling governmental interest.

If the government wants to curtail your freedom of assembly, it must have a compelling governmental interest.

Bill Clinton and a majority of Democrats and Republicans in Washington agreed that if the government wanted to curtail religious freedom, the other right in the first amendment, it needed a compelling governmental interest as well.

In Georgia today, the Republican Party has decided that the religious freedom guarantee of the first amendment is not equal with the freedoms of speech and assembly. In fact, a group of people claiming to want equality believe the free exercise of religion is a lesser value than the others in the First Amendment.

Today, in Georgia, Republicans have decided to bail on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Instead, they will foist a billion dollar tax increase on citizens, but then tell them their religious liberty is not a major right worth defending. There was going to be a special meeting at 10 o’clock this morning to resurrect the religious liberty legislation.

I was told last night, however, that a deal has been cut. Republican Governor Nathan Deal and Speaker David Ralston will scuttle protecting religious liberty and, in exchange, will be able to get enough Democrats to help them raise taxes on Georgians.

Their decision is disappointing, but it has an upside.

The Republicans most opposed to protecting religious liberty, like Republicans Beth Beskin and Wendell Willard, support the tax increase. They also happen to represent districts within the core listening area of my radio show.

For the next year, I will get to point out repeatedly that these Republicans were perfectly happy to vote for a tax increase and stabbed religious voters in the back. Mike Jacobs, the Republican who actually caused RFRA to be scuttled, is going to be rewarded with a judicial appointment by Governor Deal.

I will get to remind voters in the run up to the statewide vote on Governor Deal’s education package that he rewarded the people who stabbed faith voters in the back.

I will get to remind voters that Wendell Willard, who is old and has run unopposed, that he voted for a billion dollar tax increase and rejected protecting religious liberty.

I will get to help voters in Mike Jacobs’ district make up their mind on a replacement in a special election.

I will get to remind voters that freshman Representative Beth Beskin raised their taxes and would not protect their religious freedom.

The rejection of RFRA is unfortunate. But I suspect the next year will pay dividends for conservatives. For the first time, they’ll have a voice in drive time on radio in Atlanta willing to stand shoulder to shoulder and fight the good fight exposing these Republicans.

And then, when we bring it back in 2016, they’ll go from the General Assembly into their primaries after a year of pointing out their tax increases and their sudden shifts in 2016 trying to cover their tracks.

They may have abandoned protecting religious liberty today, but doing so will ultimately help provide the tools conservatives need to shift the Georgia GOP toward the GOP and away from Democrats who just found religion in 2002 and suddenly declared themselves Republican.


Comments

If there are no “unintended consequences” resulting from laws, I must conclude that the government knowingly traded our constitutionally protected “freedom of association” for mandatory non-discrimination.  In the beginning it was Blacks, then Women, then all minorities, handicapped and old people.  Lately, its Gays and Transgendered.  Soon it will be Muslims.  When will this victim list stop and when will our right to “freedom of association” bottom out ? 

It seems reasonable to allow a wedding vendor to pick their customers without fear of a lawsuit.  It’s not a restaurant or hotel.  We are not returning to a “White’s Only” bathroom or water fountain era.  It’s probably time to draw the line and say “No more” government abuse.

I don’t think this is a Religious Liberties issue at all. This is a constitutional issue being miscast as a Religious Liberties issue.

We crashed our economy in 2008 because of non-discrimination laws allowed extortion threats to lenders.  Will we never learn that unqualified borrowers shouldn’t get loans ?  Will we ever repeal the Community Reinvestment Act of 1993 or the HUD non-discrimination rules ?

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Monday, March 30, 2015

Police State Bills GA SB 94 & HB 430


Thanks to Garland Favorito Voter GA for his research and help to get the word out for this dangerous legislation that would include "crimes about to happen"! Our so called representatives have given away more of our rights, freedom and liberty than ever before and they won't stop. This legislation (HB 430) is akin to something that happened in the 30's. Instructions of how we need your help are in the letter.
 
Please read the attachments view the short video and see what they are doing to us. It is beyond heinous that our so called "CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS" ARE GIVING
AWAY OUR RIGHTS!!!!!!
 
Click here for the Rich Slick Trick Video (12min) - SB94/HB430 Substitute [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001LtqnvztmnzqTs1l3a4E2YZL2kipPkA909slrs9ZEFk3g96PmMeVSXsr0dpTV1pPaZIRbwpYL4gthUwdtnasxgOSqv5gzwntvBqRssost9X7hcp1d9rRdEUw5Imcw0C9w0RJF7-dj RLgDXR_v8uJBDnp0ZmA3Ar80Cg8EIQh8bXUhpmhHtXz8TVI6CeyMbje3ucK5rtZKP98b6vzVkLus8Wl8O2Zev7corhCIGAH2LRG1wPgoJ1GSAWA9_Ij8Yyxf--b0loU-FVyLXfSduzAgvGLIL-Zbxn-PG1DOIJ9FLQujkc-IkdSQ==&c=IFcy5PEmCd1y5-BQ-jJCnGKeVA2chkO9RuTT3X4vyI7s5bb2ADF60Q==&ch=tgQeldn7_9GwbPfRCfGykcF_PF1pjz43XTerq4_xrW7x0iWJ_p6JVg==]
 
Senate Bill 94 started out as a simple bill with witness identification improvements that passed the Senate unanimously. When it got to the House Non-Civil Judiciary
Committee chairman Rich Golick attached the entire HB430 to it. The SB94 substitute will now bypass the normal Senate committee hearing that would have taken place on the dangerous provisions it has for:
 
* Secret Searches
* Secretly Retained Property Seizures
* Searches if crimes are "about to be committed"
* Non-certified search personnel
* To limit contesting of an illegal search to 10 days
* Government appeals and property retention of searches and seizures ruled illegal
* Video Recording inside a property without the consent of owner
* Remote surveillance without consent or participation of local authorities
These threats to the freedom of the people of Georgia are being supported by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
and the Georgia Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers (GACDL) Saleem Dennis of GACDL even went so far as to write a supporting letter that was distributed on the House floor prior to the SB94 substitute vote that passed. We are asking everyone to call Monday morning or Email the ACLU and GACDL to tell them to stop supporting this bill that threatens to destroy some of our liberties. Their contact information is:
 
* American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 770 303-8111,  Marvin Lim mlim@acluga.org
[mailto:mlim@acluga.org]
* Georgia Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers (GACDL) Saleem (Sam) Dennis 229-244-4428
sam@samdennislaw.com [mailto:sam@samdennislaw.com],    Jennifer MacKall 404 248-1777
jennmakcall@att.net [mailto:jennmakcall@att.net]
 
We also ask you to call Sen. Charlie Bethel's office to offer your help and support while urging him to tell the Senate to send his original SB94 back to the House for the vote it deserves.
 
* Sen. Charlie Bethel, (404) 463-1383, charlie.bethel@senate.ga.gov [mailto:charlie.bethel@senate.ga.gov]
 
Here is a PDF of the letter I sent Sen. Bethel including bill line references:
 
* Sen. Bethel sb94-hb430 substitute letter [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001LtqnvztmnzqTs1l3a4E2YZL2kipPkA909slrs9ZEFk3g96PmMeVSXsr0dpTV1pPab0-XLesCQw1rJPgiCVby5ZImxxztQveW_yvqTnq4lVQIDnlAtEudvNj6HK1CMkPi4iyttERfys_uighnxIFLVQQpPGn0nr8aCCGaYUeVxsMPwVtZDFKkm9oMCGrQxgxymc8nggM6RB4gTNCPCqHeGbPdTXGXbUsT40nkSXeCOcoFJWBBgBL4uBEGZXzqXyp8DOi_3kYiqU3zyE_ndGCiFC05nICeBn3_nLaaUnmQlmTanzi4blLlytPYRW4_mdtRCsY4DyVZTcds3TGe1C6UqieHtHadoWsbxznVHLWIPMTxtoUaaHBY0IM5OXJt5_&c=IFcy5PEmCd1y5-BQ jJCnGKeVA2chkO9RuTT3X4vyI7s5bb2ADF60Q==&ch=tgQeldn7_9GwbPfRCfGykcF_PF1pjz43XTerq4_xrW7x0iWJ_p6JVg==]
 
You can also Email all senators at once to oppose the substitute:
 
'john.albers@senate.ga.gov [mailto:john.albers@senate.ga.gov]'; 'brandon.beach@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:brandon.beach@senate.ga.gov]'; 'charlie.bethel@senate.ga.gov [mailto:charlie.bethel@senate.ga.gov]';
'ellis.black@senate.ga.gov [mailto:ellis.black@senate.ga.gov]'; 'dean.burke@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:dean.burke@senate.ga.gov]'; 'gloria.butler@senate.ga.gov [mailto:gloria.butler@senate.ga.gov]';
'bill.cowsert@senate.ga.gov [mailto:bill.cowsert@senate.ga.gov]'; 'mike.crane@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:mike.crane@senate.ga.gov]'; 'gail.davenport@senate.ga.gov [mailto:gail.davenport@senate.ga.gov]';
'mike.dugan@senate.ga.gov [mailto:mike.dugan@senate.ga.gov]'; 'vincent.fort@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:vincent.fort@senate.ga.gov]'; 'frank.ginn@senate.ga.gov [mailto:frank.ginn@senate.ga.gov]';
'steve.gooch@senate.ga.gov [mailto:steve.gooch@senate.ga.gov]'; 'marty.harbin@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:marty.harbin@senate.ga.gov]'; 'ed.harbison@senate.ga.gov [mailto:ed.harbison@senate.ga.gov]';
'tyler.harper@senate.ga.gov [mailto:tyler.harper@senate.ga.gov]'; 'bill.heath@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:bill.heath@senate.ga.gov]'; 'steve.henson@senate.ga.gov [mailto:steve.henson@senate.ga.gov]';
'hunter.hill@senate.ga.gov [mailto:hunter.hill@senate.ga.gov]'; 'jack.hill@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:jack.hill@senate.ga.gov]'; 'judson.hill@senate.ga.gov [mailto:judson.hill@senate.ga.gov]';
'chuck.hufstetler@senate.ga.gov [mailto:chuck.hufstetler@senate.ga.gov]'; 'bill.jackson@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:bill.jackson@senate.ga.gov]'; 'lester.jackson@senate.ga.gov [mailto:lester.jackson@senate.ga.gov]';
'donzella.james@senate.ga.gov [mailto:donzella.james@senate.ga.gov]'; 'rick.jeffares@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:rick.jeffares@senate.ga.gov]'; 'burt.jones@senate.ga.gov [mailto:burt.jones@senate.ga.gov]';
'emanuel.jones@senate.ga.gov [mailto:emanuel.jones@senate.ga.gov]'; 'harold.jones@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:harold.jones@senate.ga.gov]'; 'john.kennedy@senate.ga.gov [mailto:john.kennedy@senate.ga.gov]';
'greg.kirk@senate.ga.gov [mailto:greg.kirk@senate.ga.gov]'; 'william.ligon@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:william.ligon@senate.ga.gov]'; 'david.lucas@senate.ga.gov [mailto:david.lucas@senate.ga.gov]';
'p.k.martin@senate.ga.gov [mailto:p.k.martin@senate.ga.gov]'; 'josh.mckoon@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:josh.mckoon@senate.ga.gov]'; 'fran.millar@senate.ga.gov [mailto:fran.millar@senate.ga.gov]';
'butch.miller@senate.ga.gov [mailto:butch.miller@senate.ga.gov]'; 'jeff.mullis@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:jeff.mullis@senate.ga.gov]'; 'nan.orrock@senate.ga.gov [mailto:nan.orrock@senate.ga.gov]';
'elena.parent@senate.ga.gov [mailto:elena.parent@senate.ga.gov]'; 'ronald.ramsey@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:ronald.ramsey@senate.ga.gov]'; 'michael.rhett@senate.ga.gov [mailto:michael.rhett@senate.ga.gov]';
'valencia.seay@senate.ga.gov [mailto:valencia.seay@senate.ga.gov]'; 'david.shafer@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:david.shafer@senate.ga.gov]'; 'freddie.sims@senate.ga.gov [mailto:freddie.sims@senate.ga.gov]';
'jesse.stone@senate.ga.gov [mailto:jesse.stone@senate.ga.gov]'; 'horacena.tate@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:horacena.tate@senate.ga.gov]'; 'bruce.thompson@senate.ga.gov [mailto:bruce.thompson@senate.ga.gov]';
'curt.thompson@senate.ga.gov [mailto:curt.thompson@senate.ga.gov]'; 'lindsey.tippins@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:lindsey.tippins@senate.ga.gov]'; 'ross.tolleson@senate.ga.gov [mailto:ross.tolleson@senate.ga.gov]';
'renee.unterman@senate.ga.gov [mailto:renee.unterman@senate.ga.gov]'; 'ben.watson@senate.ga.gov
[mailto:ben.watson@senate.ga.gov]'; 'john.wilkinson@senate.ga.gov [mailto:john.wilkinson@senate.ga.gov]'
 
For MAC mail you may have to globally search and
replace the ";" with "," to delimit each Email.
 
Thank you, Garland Favorito 770 993 3622
 
For further information contact jstaver28@gmail.com [mailto:jstaver28@gmail.com] 404.861.0711
Look forward to seeing you at our next meeting
Thursday April 02, 2015 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
at the Cherokee Cattle Company, 2710 Canton Road
Marietta, GA 30066, 770.427.0490
 

Public Education


Education happens one kid at a time.  Parents and teachers are the only folks qualified ensure that each student is progressing well.  Parents and teachers know this on a day to day basis.  They communicate and adjust their strategies to get the kids back on track.  Summer tutoring is often necessary and helpful. Principals need to encourage teachers and parents to focus on the kids. 
State legislatures are not helpful.  Mandates that distract from “individual kid centered education” need to be removed.  Government tends to micro-manage schools to become ineffective and too expansive. The “one size fits all” approach to education is not helpful.
The Federal government is not helpful.  Turning course content over to bureaucracies with ideological political motives is a violation of students’ rights.  They are not in class to receive political indoctrination.  What students read and write about should be grounded in facts, not ideologically driven indoctrination goals.  History does need to be taught to include the realities of each period to include how people made their living and what tools they had to use. Classical literature that gives insight to human behavior is useful.
We don’t need multi-million dollar buildings to be torn down and replaced every 20 years.  We need to restore K through 8 elementary schools and drop the middle school idea.  We don’t need minimum enrollment rules at each school.  Neighborhood schools need to be able to expand and contract with the demographic cycles. 
Schools need to teach the basics of reading, writing and math first.  Each student should be allowed to progress at his or her own pace.  Parents need to hire tutors to help students catch up and stay ahead.  The best education is self-education.  Students learn faster when they can pick the topics they are interested in and research these on the internet.
Text books have been politicized to the point of being useless and harmful.  Homeschoolers use Wikipedia to get more accurate information to avoid the ideological brain-washing you get with text books.    
Non-English speaking students need to be in their own schools and not enrolled in public schools until they can function. The same is true for kids with severe limitations.
Students should be grouped into classes according to ability. Advanced students should be in advanced classes.  Slow students should be in slow classes.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
 

Close the UN

The United Nuts (UN) Gotta to Go!, by Joe Messina - March 30, 2015
Do you know what the United Nations (Nuts) just did? Why does the President of these Unites States continue to hold the UN in such high esteem? I don’t understand. Talk about a bunch of self-loving, overpowered failures. They get more things wrong than POTUS does.
Last year Iran was chosen to head up the UN Human Rights Council, really! That’s the same council that, just years before, asked for Human Rights inspectors to be sent to Iran to investigate numerous human right violations. At the time, Iran refused access to the UN inspectors. Does this sound like a cooperative nation? Or one that should now be leading the council? I think not.
A report issued by the UN Secretary-General to the UN General Assembly indicated he said he was “deeply troubled by reports of increased numbers of executions, amputations, arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials, torture and ill-treatment” in Iran and noted a “crackdown on human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and opposition activists.” Following a review of Iran’s implementation of (or lack of) the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee concluded “that the status of international human rights treaties in domestic law is not specified in the legal system, which hinders the full implementation of the rights contained in the Covenant.” What that means in a nutshell… Iran did NOTHING to legally incorporate human rights as provided in the UN recommendations. So the question remains… why did the UN choose Iran to lead the UN’s Human Rights Council, when they haven’t even adopted them in their own country?
This is a country where women are executed for surviving a rape… because it’s always the woman’s own fault for getting raped! Come on ladies, where is the outcry?!
Women are discriminated against in personal status matters related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody. A woman requires her male guardian’s approval for marriage regardless of her age. An Iranian woman cannot pass on her nationality to her foreign-born spouse or their children. A woman may not obtain a passport or travel outside the country without her husband’s written permission.
Are these the qualifications to head up the Human Rights Council?
Then there are the Chinese. Another country holding the torch for human rights. Oops, I meant torching human rights. Amnesty International reports:
An estimated 500,000 people are currently enduring punitive detention without charge or trial, and millions are unable to access the legal system to seek redress for their grievances. Harassment, surveillance, house arrest, and imprisonment of human rights defenders are on the rise, and censorship of the Internet and other media has grown. Repression of minority groups, including Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians, and of Falun Gong practitioners and Christians who practice their religion outside state-sanctioned churches continues. While the recent reinstatement of Supreme People’s Court review of death penalty cases may result in lower numbers of executions, China remains the leading executioner in the world.
Many women have been jailed for openly questioning how China treats women. Recently, 5 women were arrested for planning a women’s day event. Can you imagine?! How dare they! And yet, China has been given a seat at the Human Rights table.
Syria, according to many reports, is at the top of the list for human rights violations, yet last year, they too were a serious contender for a place at the UN Human Rights table.
Given all the above facts, who does the UN Human Rights Council single out as the worst country for Human Rights? Israel. Out of 193 member nations, Israel seems to have the worst record on how it treats it women, worse than any other country. Why? Because they don’t allow them to own property? Nope. That’s not it, because they can. It must be because they don’t allow them an education. Wait, that’s not it. They have the same rights as men to an education. It has forced circumcision for women? No. That’s not it either. Stay with me here, I’m trying! Women are beaten for not dressing appropriately, right? Nope. They can dress any way they want. Women can’t drive? No, that’s not it. Women can’t run for higher office, right? Nope! That’s not it either.
If it’s none of those things, then what is Israel’s Human Rights violation against women? The United Nuts (UN) have decided that because some of them feel that Israel is occupying the West Bank and because of the turmoil there, it’s affecting the ability for Palestinian women to get jobs. That’s the single reason behind it Israel’s violation. And you wonder why I call them nuts…
The UN Human Rights Council totally ignores, rampant female genital mutilation in Somalia. It ignores Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women as second-class citizens who can’t even drive themselves to the hospital and are physically punished if not wearing compulsory clothing. It ignores Syria where government forces routinely employ rape and other sexual violence and torture against women as a tactic of war. It ignores the Sudan, where domestic violence is not prohibited and there is no minimum age for “consensual” sex. And of course Iran, where every woman who registered as a presidential candidate in the last election was disqualified.
But Israel is the country who is singled out because their actions are affecting the ability for Palestinian women to get jobs. By that logic, the U.S. should be first on the list of Human Rights violators. Under Obama, women and the black community have been hit the hardest on the employment front during this recession.
And our president wants the UN to ratify an out-of-control, un-Constitutional Iranian agreement with the U.S.? I don’t think so!
The UN has got to go!
http://therealside.com/2015/03/the-united-nuts-un-gotta-to-go/

Comments
The worst thing the UN has done in recent decades is the global warming hoax, costing trillions of dollars to snare countries into adopting the draconian UN Agenda 21 Plan for global tyranny and murder. This plan launched the carbon capture scam, created mal-investment in energy and transportation and ruined city and county ordinances. Government leaders who signed and implemented Agenda 21 have created a monument to their incompetence.  Anybody who denies that global warming is a hoax is either an idiot or a criminal.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Police State Pushback NJ

Resistance to militarized cops begins, New Jersey bans acquisition of tools of war without local OK by Bob Unruh 
Nightscopes, military assault rifles, grenade launchers and 14-ton Mine-Resistance Ambush-Protected vehicles built for taking down terrorist enclaves are becoming part of the toolbox of local police departments under a federal program that ships such equipment out on request and without charge.
The issue came to national attention when law-enforcement officers in Ferguson, Missouri, outfitted like an invading army, were deployed against violent protesters outraged by the shooting death of black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer.
WND reported there are some 17,000 police departments nationwide equipped with $4.2 billion worth of equipment ranging from Blackhawk helicopters and battering rams to explosives, body armor and night vision.
It’s all under the federal government’s 1033 program that supplies “surplus” military weapons to local officers, departments and agencies.
But now resistance to such militarization of local police has been enacted with a bill signed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that bans local law-enforcement agencies from obtaining such equipment without authorization from their local government.
According to the Tenth Amendment Center, which monitors and reports on issues of state and federal authority, it’s “an important first step toward blocking federal programs that militarize local police.”
The bill, S2364, by state Sen. Nia Gill, a Democrat, puts local government officials directly between the federal government and local law enforcers.
“This law interposes the local government in the process, giving the people of New Jersey the power to end it, and at the least, forcing the process into the open,” the report said.
It was approved on votes of 36-0 and 70-0 in the legislative chambers.
“With Christie’s signature, it’s the first state law of its kind directly addressing the endless flow of military equipment to state and local police,” the report said.
The bill “wouldn’t put an end to the militarization of New Jersey law enforcement, but it does create a mechanism for local communities to stop the free-flowing tide of equipment.”
“Citizens now have the power and forum to pressure their elected officials at a city or county level to vote against such acquisitions or face the consequences come the next election. The new law also creates an environment of transparency that didn’t exist before,” the center said.
Center officials told WND at least eight other states are considering similar or related language, including some that have significantly stronger language than New Jersey’s.
Tenth Amendment Center spokesman Michael Boldin told WND: “Our view is that the New Jersey law is significant because it represents the first salvo by states against an unfettered flow of military equipment from Washington, D.C., to state and local law enforcement. Other states are likely to take stronger steps forward in the near future. Good policing is about acting like peace officers, not a command and control military force. With more federal control over local police being a goal of some in the federal government, the New Jersey law giving final say over the receipt of such military equipment to local communities is an important victory.”
WND recently reported the American Civil Liberties Union was critical of the 1033 program.
Cheryl Chumley, author of “Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming our Reality,” said the information is “insightful and informative.”
“The ACLU is dead wrong on a number of issues – but on this, on the red flag raised on militarized police, the group is dead on correct,” she said.
She said the Obama administration has had little interest until recently in examining the process of distributing war weapons to police departments.
“He’s likely been quiet because of statements he made in mid-2008 calling for a civilian police force akin to the size and power of the nation’s military – and now he sees the fruits of that desire are not so appetizing after all.”
WND reported at the time that a copy of Obama’s Colorado Springs speech posted online apparently was edited to exclude Obama’s specific references to the new force.
Are members of the American public in danger because of the program?
Some would say yes. The Review-Journal in Las Vegas has reported a lawsuit by members of a family claiming civil rights violations by police.
The report explains police thought a neighbor of Michael and Linda Mitchell, and their adult son Anthony, had barricaded himself and a child in a nearby home.
SWAT team members demanded that the Mitchells leave their home so police could use it for a tactical “advantage” during the crisis. They refused and “police later knocked down Anthony Mitchell’s door with a metal ram and entered his house without either a warrant or his permission,” their claim alleges. Mitchell was arrested, the report said.
NJ.com last fall documented the weaponization in New Jersey. The news site reported Jersey City police “have the firepower of an army, with an inventory of 155 surplus M16 military assault rifles, able to spit out hundreds of rounds a minute.” “And the Bergen County sheriff’s office has a grenade launcher.”
NJ.com said that according to an analysis of Defense Logistics Agency transfers to New Jersey, surplus military items “ranging from office equipment, sleeping bags, computers, digital cameras and clothing to aircraft, vehicles and weapons meant for a battlefield have been shipped to departments across the state.”
Included are 529 military-issue M16 assault rifles “that went to 15 counties; 365 M14s, a rifle still used by Navy SEAL teams, sent to 17 New Jersey counties; night vision goggles and range finders able to find targets in the dark; dozens of Army Humvees and armored trucks; five bomb disposal robots; and a $412,000 mine-resistant, ambush-protected armored vehicle, known as MRAP, meant for war zone patrols.”
At the time, Ari Rosmarin, the public policy director for the ACLU in New Jersey, told the site: “We’re building a culture in our local sheriff police departments of a warrior mentality. The more police officers see themselves as warriors, the more they’ll begin seeing members of the community as the enemy.”
Barnegat resident James D’Arienzo told the site a fleet of Humvees stored on the grounds of an old skateboard parks look out of place.
“It looks like we’re living in North Korea,” he said. “There is no need for any of these vehicles.”
WND also has reported on a trend in which cities and counties are returning the war weapons.
“Whenever this kind of armament is brought into a community, it should only be done with the knowledge and consent of the citizenry,” John Whitehead, a constitutional attorney based in Charlottesville, Virginia, said in a statement released to WND.
The report noted law enforcement agencies across the country have quietly returned more than 6,000 unwanted or unusable items to the Pentagon in the last 10 years, according to Mother Jones magazine.
The report noted that during the 1980s, SWAT raids numbered about 3,000 a year but now occur more than 80,000 times per year.
The results sometimes are horrendous. WND previously reported on an incident in rural Habersham County, Georgia, in which a SWAT team threw a flash-bang grenade into a home where officers believed a drug dealer was hiding out. The grenade landed in the crib of a 19-month-old boy and blew open his face. The toddler spent five weeks in the hospital following the May 28 incident which the local sheriff called “a mistake.”

Source:http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/resistance-to-militarized-cops-begins/
 
Comments
Swat deployment to homes and no-knock warrants and private property seizure by police and other government agencies should be banned as unconstitutional.
We should send our excess military equipment to the Mexican border-states and to counties with Mosques, Muslim camps and drug cartels to equip state controlled National Guard units and keep them in the states. We need a military presence in border “no-go” zones and to protect ranches and towns on the Mexican border.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader