What's Occupying Wall Street?

The protesters have a point, if not the right target.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - OCTOBER 14, 2011

In the matter of Occupy Wall Street, the allegedly anticapitalist movement that's been camped out in lower Manhattan for the past few weeks and has inspired copycat protests from Boston to Los Angeles, we have some sympathy. Really? Well, yeah.

OK, not for the half-naked demonstrators, the ranting anti-Semites, Kanye West or anyone else who has helped make Occupy Wall Street a target for easy ridicule. But to the extent that the mainly young demonstrators have a valid complaint, it's that they are trying to bust their way into an economy where there is one job for every five job-seekers, and where youth unemployment runs north of 18%. That is a cause for frustration, if not outrage.

The question is, outrage at whom? On Wednesday, Occupy Wall Street marched on J.P. Morgan Chase's headquarters, after having protested outside CEO Jamie Dimon's home the previous day. That's odd, seeing that J.P. Morgan didn't take on excessive mortgage risk and didn't need (although it was forced to take) TARP money. The demonstrators also picketed the home of hedge fund mogul John Paulson, who made much of his recent fortune betting against the housing bubble, not helping to inflate it.

As for Wall Street itself, on Tuesday New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a report predicting that the financial industry will likely lose 10,000 jobs by the end of next year. That's on top of the 4,100 jobs lost since April, and the 22,000 since the beginning of 2008. Overall New York-area employment in finance and insurance has declined by 8.9% since late 2006. Even Goldman Sachs is planning layoffs.

So much for the cliche of Wall Street versus Main Street, the greedy 1% versus the hard-done-by 99%. That may be the core conviction of Occupy Wall Street and its fellow-travelers, and it may be a slogan in nearly every Democratic campaign next year, including President Obama's. Whether or not that's smart Democratic politics, the voters will decide.

Still, if anyone in the Occupy Wall Street movement wants an intellectually honest explanation for why they can't find a job, they might start by considering what happens to an economy when the White House decides to make pinatas out of the financial-services industry (roughly 6%, or $828 billion, of U.S. GDP), the energy industry (about 7.5% of GDP, or $1 trillion), and millionaires and billionaires (who paid 20.4% of all federal income taxes in 2009). And don't forget the Administration's rhetorical volleys against individual companies like Anthem Blue Cross, AIG and Bank of America, or against Chrysler's bondholders, or various other alleged malefactors of wealth.

Now move from words to actions. Want a shovel-ready job? The Administration has spent three years sitting on the Keystone XL pipeline project that promises to create 13,000 union jobs and 118,000 "spin-off" jobs. A State Department environmental review says the project poses no threat to the environment, but the Administration's eco-friends are screaming lest it go ahead.

Then there are the jobs the Administration and its allies in Congress are actively killing. In June, American Electric Power announced it would have to shutter five coal-fired power plants, at a cost of 600 jobs, in order to comply with new EPA rules. Those same rules may soon force the utility to shutter another 25 plants. Bank of America's decision last month to lay off 30,000 employees is a direct consequence of various Congressional edicts limiting how much the bank can charge merchants or how it can handle delinquent borrowers.

These visible crags of the Obama jobs iceberg are nothing next to the damage done below the waterline by the D.C. regulations factory, which last year added 81,405 pages of new rules to the Federal Register, bringing the total cost to the U.S. economy of regulatory compliance to an estimated $1.7 trillion a year.

Less easy to quantify, but no less harmful, are the long-term uncertainties employers face in trying to price in the costs of ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, the potential expiration next year of the Bush tax cuts, the possible millionaire surcharge, the value of the dollar and so on. No wonder businesses are so reluctant to hire: When you don't know how steep the trail ahead of you is, it's usually better to travel light.

This probably won't do much to persuade the Occupiers of Wall Street that their cause would be better served in Washington, D.C., where a sister sit-in this week seems to have fizzled. Then again, most of America's jobless also won't recognize their values or interests in the warmed-over anticapitalism being served up in lower Manhattan. Three years into the current Administration, most Americans are getting wise to the source of their economic woes. It's a couple hundred miles south of Wall Street.

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Parents Form 'Unions' For School Reform

By CHRISTINA HOAG • Associated Press | Posted: Monday, October 10, 2011 12:30 am

LOS ANGELES • Shoehorned into a small living room in a south Los Angeles apartment, a dozen parents discuss why their children's school ranks as one of the worst in the nation's second-largest school district.

The answers come quickly: Teachers are jaded; gifted pupils aren't challenged; disabled students are isolated; the building is dirty; office staff treat parents disrespectfully.

"We know what the problem is — we're about fixing it," said Cassandra Perry, the Woodcrest Elementary School parent hosting the meeting. "We're not against the administrators or the teachers union. We're honestly about the kids."

School parent groups are no longer just about holding the next bake sale fundraiser. They're about education reform.

The Woodcrest mothers and fathers, all wearing buttons saying "parent power," are one of the newly formed "parents unions" that are springing up from San Diego to Buffalo, N.Y., with the same goal — to push schools to improve academic achievement.

Behind the parent empowerment movement is a feisty Los Angeles-based nonprofit, Parent Revolution, which in 2010 pushed through a landmark law giving parents authority to force turnarounds at failing schools through a petition.

Known as the "parent trigger," the California law was the first of its kind in the nation. It inspired Texas and Mississippi to adopt similar laws, and legislation is under consideration in 20 other states. Two states have voted down parent trigger bills.

"Parents have a different incentive structure than anyone else," said Ben Austin, Parent Revolution's executive director. "They're the only ones who really care about kids."

It's a compelling argument for many parents.

San Diego mother Teresa Drew founded United Parents for Education after her daughter's reading and math scores fell below grade level for two years. The district is not doing enough to ensure that teachers are effective and weed out bad educators, she said.

"I talked to other parents and found they had the same experience," Drew said. "I have nothing against the PTA, but the problem for me is there's a T in PTA. This is parent-led."

Unions say it's overly simplistic to blame teachers. Parents should enlist educators in the solution, not dismiss them, they say.

"It's well meaning, but misguided," said Frank Wells, who heads the Southern California chapter of the California Teachers Association. "Parents shouldn't be acting with authority in a vacuum."

Parents already have a tool to leverage policy change — school board elections, Wells said.

Unions have mobilized against parent-trigger laws. In July, the American Federation of Teachers posted a slide presentation on its website detailing how it successfully won a dilution of the Connecticut parent-trigger proposal so parents can recommend change but have no authority to enact it.

After ensuing media coverage of "Plan A: Kill Mode," the union took down the document and disavowed it.

For Austin, union opposition to parent trigger underscores what's wrong — unions reject reform efforts such as charter schools, tenure changes and new performance evaluation measures in order to protect jobs, but at the same time many schools, especially in the inner cities, are failing.

"The system is calcified," he said. "It's designed to go against change."

In somewhat of an ironic twist, Parent Revolution is organizing parents using old-school, labor organizing tactics. So far, more than 20 unions have been formed.

Protests Peril For Obama

By DICK MORRIS

Published on TheHill.com on October 11, 2011 

As the early '70s repeat themselves with the chaotic Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in lower Manhattan, we need to grasp what a peril this movement is to President Obama and the entire Democratic Party. It is like the Obama campaign run wild without Obama in it. It is as if the bandwagon has taken off and left the president behind. And he and his party are racing to catch up. "There go my followers," they seem to be saying, "and I must go with them because I am their leader."

Just as the civil rights movement of the late '50s and early '60s and the youthful enthusiasm that animated JFK's candidacy in 1960 energized a generation, so the Obama campaign did in 2008. But just as frustration with Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon and the entire political system turned the idealism of the young into sour cynicism, so the Obama campaign's young enthusiasts have become cynical, bitter opponents of the entire political/economic system. If the Obama campaign harkened back to memories of the civil rights demonstrations of the '60s, so the Occupy Wall Street effort reminds us of SDS, SNCC, hippies, yuppies, the Chicago Seven and Jerry Rubin.

The fact is that Obama is less a socialist than a corporatist. His objective is not government ownership, but government management. To control the economy -- and all of our lives -- he needs to get rid of small banks and small business and consolidate it all in a few big banks and big corporations; hence his friendliness to Goldman-Sachs and General Motors. When wealthy tycoons go to dinners and give Obama $35,000 donations, they know what they are doing. It is not liberal Democratic masochism at work, it is a conscious investment in central planning where big labor, big government, big business and big banks meet and divvy up the pie, just as they do in Germany and France. That is Obama's game.

His former supporters have taken to the streets to protest his corporatist alliances. Sure, they oppose the Republicans and the conservatives, but they have more in common with the Tea Party than they realize. Both are acting out against big business. Wall Street is as much the enemy of Main Street as it is of college campuses.     

The unions and the professional left are scrambling, along with Obama and the Democrats, to head off the stampede among their followers in the Occupy Wall Street movement. They are trying to make up for their pro-Wall Street policies by seeming to take on rich people in their tax program. But the young demonstrators will not be fooled. They invested their dreams for Obama in 2008 and, since then, have gotten only compromises, half-measures, incompetence and a ruined economy in return.

The conservatives and Republicans no longer own the anti-Obama movement. They have to share ownership with disenchanted liberals, those who recognize incompetence when they see it, and the many who are turned off by the growing perception of corruption in the wake of Solyndra. The bad economy has led to an impression of presidential weakness and inability akin to that which took over the image of Jimmy Carter in the late '70s. More and more, the opposition to Obama is based on the outcomes of his policies, not on their ideological bias or their liberal intent.

Will the Republicans drive these new converts to the anti-Obama cause back into the arms of the Democrats? The likes of Mitt Romney won't. Rick Perry might, particularly as he explains his designs on the Social Security system. But even if they are worried by the possibility of a Republican victory in 2012, their more likely reaction is to vote with their feet and stay home. Obama cannot muster the same enthusiasm he did in 2008. It's out there, but it is now opposed to him, not for him. That's what Occupy Wall Street is all about.

__________________________________________________________________________________

GO TO DICKMORRIS.COM TO READ ALL OF DICK'S COLUMNS!

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO FRIENDS & FAMILY AND INVITE THEM TO RECEIVE OUR FREE COLUMNS BY SUBSCRIBING HERE. THANKS!

http://www.dickmorris.com/subscribe.php?utm_source=dmreports&utm_medium=email&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=Dickmorris%2BReports%2BSignup

With Union Help, Occupy St. Louis Planning Major Rally, March

By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter

Updated 3:05 pm Tue., 10.11.11

Labor and community groups are supporting what they hope will be a major Occupy St. Louis rally and march Friday afternoon that is targeting Bank of America.

But in the meantime, a march is scheduled for 6 p.m. this evening to show solidarity with Occupy counterparts arrested in Boston and elsewhere.

According to organizers, tonight's march will be "from Kiener Plaza through downtown in support of those Occupations that have brutally repressed by the police, especially those members of Occupy Boston."

However, the statement added, "Occupy St. Louis wants to reaffirm that the St. Louis Police Department has treated people with dignity and respect, and affirm that the St. Louis Police Department will continue to do so."

As for Friday's event, Bob Soutier, head of the Greater St. Louis Labor Council, is among the speakers slated to kickoff the 3:30 p.m. rally in Kiener Plaza, the chief turf of the Occupy St. Louis movement since it began just over a week ago.

Organizers say that the rally will be followed by a 4 p.m. march to the nearby offices of Bank of America, one of the targets of the national "Occupy" movement that began -- and continues -- with Occupy Wall Street.

Bank of America was among the institutions that received federal bailout money during the economic meltdown in late 2008 and into 2009. Occupy activists and labor groups are now citing the nation's largest bank as an example of corporate greed.

The event also appears aimed at galvanizing the Occupy St. Louis participants.

The Missouri AFL-CIO said in a statement directed at members:

"All over the country, people are saying 'enough is enough' and taking to the streets. When we filled Kiener Plaza last March to rally against out-of-control corporate greed, we demonstrated our unity to the entire community. Now that jobless workers, students, construction workers and senior citizens have Occupied St. Louis to call out those that have been outsourcing our jobs, foreclosing on our homes and wrecking our economy, let's join together in a demonstration of unity from Kiener Plaza to the big banks that aren't lending to one of the many bridges left crumbling."

Labor participants are asked to wear attire that identifies their union. "This jobs crisis requires action from politicians, from corporations and from the banks," the AFL-CIO said. "Janitors and social workers, painters and bus drivers, cashiers and teachers make this country work, we're the 99 percent."

Sympathetic lawyers also are slated to attend or observe the rally to assist any protesters who are arrested.

Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan, Says State Department

By Edwin Mora October 10, 2011

(CNSNews.com) -- There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department's latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”

“There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church's claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March [2010],” reads the State Department report on religious freedom. “[Private] chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases, PRTs [Provincial Reconstruction Teams], and at the Italian embassy. Some citizens who converted to Christianity as refugees have returned.”

In recent times, freedom of religion has declined in Afghanistan, according to the State Department.

“The governmentʼs level of respect for religious freedom in law and in practice declined during the reporting period, particularly for Christian groups and individuals,” reads the State Department report.

“Negative societal opinions and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Muslim converts to Christianity," said the report. "The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom.”

Most Christians in the country refuse to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship,” said the State Department.

More than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in the decade-old Afghanistan war, according to CNSNews.comʼs database of all U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. A September audit released jointly by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and the State Departmentʼs Office of Inspector General, found that the U.S. government will spend at least $1.7 billion to support the civilian effort from 2009-2011.

According to that report, the $1.7 billion excludes additional security costs, which the report says the State Department priced at about $491 million.

A March 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service showed that overall the United States has spent more than $440 billion in the Afghanistan war. Christian aid from the international community has also gone to aid the Afghan government.

Nevertheless, according to the State Department, the lack of non-Muslim religious centers in Afghanistan can be blamed in part on a “strapped government budget,” which is primarily fueled by the U.S. aid.

“There were no explicit restrictions for religious minority groups to establish places of worship and training of clergy to serve their communities,” says the report, “however, very few public places of worship exist for minorities due to a strapped government budget.”

The report acknowledged that Afghanistanʼs post-Taliban constitution, which was ratified with the help of U.S. mediation in 2004, can be contradictory when it comes to the free exercise of religion.

While the new constitution states that Islam is the “religion of the state” and that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” it also proclaims that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law.”

However, “the right to change oneʼs religion was not respected either in law or in practice,” according to the State Department.

“Muslims who converted away from Islam risked losing their marriages, rejection from their families and villages, and loss of jobs,” according to the report. “Legal aid for imprisoned converts away from Islam remains difficult due to the personal objection of Afghan lawyers to defend apostates.”

The report does note that “in recent years neither the national nor local authorities have imposed criminal penalties on coverts from Islam.” The report says that “conversion from Islam is considered apostasy and is punishable by death under some interpretations of Islamic rule in the country.”

Also, in recent years, the death punishment for blasphemy “has not been carried out,” according to the State Department.

According to the State Department report, the United States continues to promote religious freedom in Afghanistan--even though the country no longer has even one Christian church.

“The U.S. government regularly discusses religious freedom with government officials as part of its overall policy to promote human rights,” according to the report.

According to the State Department report, more than 99 percent of the population, estimated between 24 and 33 million people, is either Sunni (80 percent) or Shia (19 percent) Muslim. Non-Muslim religious groups, including the estimated 500 to 8,000 strong Christian community in the country, make up less than 1 percent of the population. Other non-Muslim groups in the country are Sikhs, Bahais, and Hindus

Residents Start Petition Drive to Get State Audit of Rockwood Schools

BY ELIZABETHE HOLLAND • eholland@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8259 | Posted: Friday, October 7, 2011 12:00 am

ELLISVILLE • A group of Rockwood School District residents upset with the district's longtime relationship with Glenn Construction Co. launched a petition drive for an audit of the district at a School Board meeting Thursday night and told the board through a spokesman that it needs to change how it does business.

"We are asking for fiscal responsibility, transparency and the efficient use of the taxpayers' precious dollars," group member Bill Ahal told the board.

Ahal told of the group Rockwood Stakeholders for Rockwood Solutions' intent to get enough signatures for the state auditor to audit the district. Among his complaints was that the board appointed Steve Smith as its president in 2010 although Smith has worked for Glenn Construction since 2004, that Glenn has made millions from the district, and that Glenn has an office in a district building. He also criticized the Rockwood teachers union for endorsing Smith's election bid this past spring.

In contrast, former board member Bill Adams praised Glenn Construction and said Glenn had saved the district a great deal of money and had done its work "above board, with complete integrity and complete transparency."

Rockwood teacher and union officer Suzanne Rainey also spoke, telling the board that she was sorry it had to now deal with "various irritants and hidden political agendas."

The board itself did not discuss any of the Glenn-related issues or Smith's role as board president, topics that several audience members said drew them to the meeting.

"We're here for the no-bid consulting work," quipped district resident Gene Glickert, who sat with two friends. "Whoever heard of no-bid consulting work? I mean, really."

Glickert was referring in part to the fact that Rockwood in the last 14 years has awarded only Glenn Construction contracts to oversee bond issue-related construction projects. In that span, Rockwood has requested proposals from other firms three times, and the district acknowledges having destroyed other firms' fee estimates without reading them first.

On the heels of a Post-Dispatch report detailing Rockwood's relationship with Glenn, the district altered its approach last week. The district says it now will review fee estimates before deciding whom to hire as program manager for a possible future $50 million bond issue.

The board also made no mention of questions regarding Glenn Construction's referral to a district address as its company headquarters.

For several years the district has provided Glenn with rent-free office space at 500 North Central Avenue in Eureka for use in overseeing Rockwood construction projects. Such arrangements aren't uncommon in construction.

However, multiple records suggest Glenn may have been using the property as its headquarters. Documents the firm has submitted to four other area school districts and the city of Eureka from 2007 through this year list the North Central address as Glenn's "corporate headquarters" or "principal place of business." Phone and fax numbers that the district pays for are also listed on such records.

Asked by the Post-Dispatch this week and last whether the board was looking into the company's use of the address, board Vice President Janet Strate said in an email: "The current contract with Glenn Construction Company provides for the district to offer office space to the program manager. The Board of Education received a letter from Mr. Glenn last Friday (Sept. 30) assuring us he is using the office space purely for Rockwood business. He also said their corporate headquarters address is in Kirkwood."

Kirkwood's business license collector, Kris Houska, said the city has no record of Glenn Construction having or applying for a business license. Houska said her office sent Glenn Construction a letter last week to inform the firm it was operating without a business license.

Several Rockwood residents, meanwhile, have since complained to the Post-Dispatch about facilities fees the district charges scouting groups and other student organizations that meet on district property.

Mehlville tax-rate roll-up meets opposition from board members, public

Board nixes Stoner's motion to keep rates at 2010 levels

EVAN YOUNG

Staff Reporter - Call Newspapers

October 05, 2011 - While the Mehlville School District will roll up its residential and commercial property-tax rates to stay revenue neutral this school year, the proposal faced opposition last week from some Board of Education members and several residents.

The board voted 4-3 last week to set the district's 2011 tax rates, with Secretary Elaine Powers and board members Rich Franz and Mark Stoner opposed.

As approved, the new rates, per $100 of assessed valuation, are:

• Residential — $3.6761, up from $3.5469 in 2010.

• Agricultural — $4.0897, roughly unchanged from last year.

• Commercial — $3.4372, up from $3.3947 in 2010.

• Personal property — $3.9678, roughly unchanged from last year.

The district's overall "blended" rate, which is not levied but used

for state calculations, is $3.6748, an increase of roughly 10 cents over the 2010 "blended" rate of $3.5763.

The rates are based on the Mehlville School District's total 2011 assessed valuation of $1,690,943,880, which is a roughly 3.4 percent decrease from $1,749,832,650 in 2010.

The district projects collecting $60 million from property taxes in 2011. It collected $60,948,000 in 2010 and has averaged $58,388,167 in property-tax revenue over the past six years.

Officials anticipate no new revenue from the reassessment of property this year.

However, all but one of the speakers at a packed Sept. 27 public hearing on the new tax rates urged the board not to roll up the rates.

"When Proposition C failed, it failed overwhelmingly. That should've been a message right there," district resident Robert Sabatino told the board, referring to a proposed 88-cent tax-rate increase Mehlville voters defeated last November.

"... You gotta ask yourselves: Am I doing the right thing? The eyes of ... our community are on all of you. We're all watching to see what happens,'' he added.

Oakville resident Laurine Main said, "We told you 'no' at the last election. How dare you get in our face and try to raise taxes in spite of what we told you. It's wrong, just wrong."

Fred Padberg of Lemay, who applied for a vacancy on the school board earlier this year, stressed to the board that "there's a hell of a lot of us retired people living in this area that are supporting this school system."

"Guys, these people are retired. They're retired, they have a limited income — it's frozen. You can't arbitrarily, constantly be loading another tax on their backs," Pad-berg told the board. " ... Rethink this, and think about it hard.

"You've got a constituency out there that you've got a responsibility to. In some cases, the people that pay the bills are called 'the boss.' And that's what we are. We'd appreciate it if you'd pay attention to what these people are saying,'' Padberg added.

Ken Dale of Oakville said while he understood and appreciated education, "it does have confines like everything else has, whether you're in business or not. And you can't just keep reaching out here and grabbing from these people and saying: 'We need more, we need more, we need more.' Because there is a bottom to the bucket, and we're getting there. And I would appreciate it very much if you would take that into consideration ..."

But Oakville Senior High School math teacher and former Mehlville National Education Association President Karen Torretta said that the district produces "the best and the brightest on a shoestring budget" and is "one of the greatest values in this state."

"You talk about having people picking up the load, you talk about cuts in staff. And yes, that happens in the private sector. Yes, that's going on," Torretta said. "We have taken dramatic cuts that I don't think many of our community realize.

"Our Central Office administrators are picking up the load. Our building administrators are picking up the load. Our teachers, our IT people, our secretaries — there have been cuts to all of those. We're picking up the load, because the focus that we all look at is the children in this district and their education,'' she said.

Later, Stoner made a motion to keep the district's tax rates at their 2010 levels, contending there was enough "cushion" in the budget and "record-level" reserves to do so.

Franz seconded Stoner's motion and thanked the speakers who addressed the board. He said the previous Board of Education "ignored and insulted" district taxpayers when it put Prop C on the ballot last year.

The current board did the same this summer when it granted pay increases to district teachers and classified personnel, he added.

"So it seems to me that this board has an opportunity to finally show some respect to the taxpayers of this school district and to finally say that they can hear what the taxpayers are saying and do the right thing tonight, and I hope you all intend to do that," Franz said.

However, Stoner's motion failed as he and Franz were the only board members to vote in favor of it.

Board member Ron Fedorchak said he supported rolling up the rates because it was a revenue-neutral proposal.

Leaving the rates unchanged and using reserves to offset the revenue loss would hinder the district's ability to address facilities needs and other issues, he said.

Board Secretary Elaine Powers proposed a compromise, suggesting the amount of the tax-rate roll-up be split in half so the district would share some of the burden to collect the same amount of revenue as last year.

Chief Financial Officer Noel Knobloch said even halving the roll-up would cost the district an estimated $1.2 million this year — and again in 2012-2013 if the board didn't roll up rates again next year.

Vice President Larry Felton and board member Tom Diehl noted the state funding forecast is unclear, particularly for 2013 and beyond.

"You can't manufacture money that's not there. For that reason, I will not put the classrooms at risk," Felton said.

Diehl said the school board already has made "substantial" cuts to the budget for the current year in order to "maintain the status quo."

"Yes times are tough, but our obligation remains," Diehl said. "A child has one and only one chance to receive an education. We can't tell that boy or girl: 'Go away and come back in a few years when the economy is better.'"

Franz later responded that the real issue was restoring credibility with the community.

"Folks, they don't trust you," Franz said to applause from the audience. "... You have an obligation to earn their trust. You are not credible in their eyes ..."

Obama Has Now Increased Debt More than All Presidents from George Washington Through George H.W. Bush Combined

By Terence P. Jeffrey October 5, 2011

(CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration passed another fiscal milestone this week, according to new data released by the Treasury Department. As of the close of business on Oct. 3, the total national debt was $14,837,099,271,196.71—up about $44.8 billion from Sept. 30.

That means that in the less-than-three-years Obama has been in office, the federal debt has increased by $4.212 trillion--more than the total national debt of about $4.1672 trillion accumulated by all 41 U.S. presidents from George Washington through George H.W. Bush combined.

This $4.212-trillion increase in the national debt means that during Obamaʼs term the federal government has already borrowed about an additional $35,835 for every American household--or $44,980 for every full-time private-sector worker. (According to the Census Bureau there were about 117,538,000 households in the country in 2010, and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 93,641,000 full-time private-sector workers.)

When Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, according to the Treasury Department, the total national debt stood at $10,626,877,048,913.08.

At the end of January 1993, the month that President George H. W. Bush left office, the total national debt was $4.1672 trillion, according to the Treasury. Thus, the total national debt accumulated by the first 41 presidents combined was about $44.8 billion less than the approximately $4.212 trillion in new debt added during Obamaʼs term.

As of Monday, Obama had been in office 986 days—or about 32 and a half months. During that time, the debt increased at an average pace of $4.27 billion per day. Were that rate to continue until Obamaʼs term ends on Jan. 20, 2013, the debt would then stand at about $16.86534 trillion—an increase of more than $6.2 trillion for Obamaʼs four years.

That would equal nearly $53,000 for each American household or more than $66,00 for each full-time private-sector worker. That total national debt did not exceed $6.2 trillion until 2002, when George W. Bush was president.

Teachers Union Launches Ad Campaign Supporting Obama Jobs Bill

From: THE HILL

By Kevin Bogardus - 09/28/11 12:49 PM ET

The National Education Association (NEA) launched a multistate television ad campaign Wednesday in support of President Obama's American Jobs Act.

The 30-second television ad urges lawmakers to vote for the legislation, with several children saying school programs are being cut and teachers are being laid off. The president's proposal includes $30 billion to pay for teachers and another $30 billion to modernize schools. 

NEA is the nation's largest union, with 3.2 million members made up of teachers and other education staff.

"The American Jobs Act is a win-win for the American people," NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said in a statement. "Congress can choose to put students ahead of political gridlock by supporting a bill that puts Americans back to work, modernizes our schools, and puts educators in classrooms instead of on the unemployment lines."

The ad will air in Washington, D.C., and five states: Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. A spokesman for the union estimated the ad buy would cost roughly $350,000.

The NEA estimates that the bill could put 280,000 educators back to work and modernize 35,000 public schools.

NEA Launches Self-Serving Ad Campaign for Obama Jobs Bill

by Kyle OlsonBIG GOVERNMENT.COM

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union, is rolling out its new $350,000 television ad campaign to generate support for President Obama’s American Jobs Act. Thirty billion of Obama’s $450 billion jobs bill has been designated to supposedly save 285,000 teaching jobs.

According to our estimates, the bill would generate $35.4 million in dues revenue for the NEA. In other words, the teachers union is spending $350,000 in hopes of getting over $35 million in “saved” dues payments – a return 100 times greater than the initial investment. These union geniuses belong on Wall Street.

Our estimates also show that the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, would see $13 million in “saved” dues payments.

Here’s how we arrived at our estimates:

About three quarters of unionized teachers are represented by the National Education Association.

According to the White House, 285,000 teaching jobs would be affected by the jobs bill. Seventy-five percent of that number is 213,750.

Every member pays dues, including $166 per year that goes to the national union, according to a secret union document posted on PublicSchoolSpending.com (213,750 multiplied by 166 = $35,482,500).

Similarly, the American Federation of Teachers, which collects annual dues of $184.20 from each member (according to financial statements found at AFTexposed.com), would save about 71,250 jobs saved. The dues ramifications? A little over $13 million.

At its national convention last summer, the NEA announced that it will support President Obama’s re-election effort.  Earlier this year, the union also announced that it will take $20 from each member’s annual dues payments to spend on “upcoming elections.”

So the union gives to the president, and he returns the favor. The great American tradition of special interests dictating government policy seems safe under the Obama regime.

Given that the relationship between the Democratic Party and the nation’s teachers union is one of co-dependency, this jobs bill and the corresponding ad campaign simply don’t pass the smell test. This bill is only meant to give the teachers unions some walking around money, just in time for the 2012 election. What a coincidence.

Obama to Keynote Event of Gay Group That Promotes LGBT Curriculum in Elementary Schools

September 30, 2011

By Penny Starr

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama will speak on Saturday at the Human Right Campaignʼs (HRC) annual dinner in Washington, D.C. – the HRC is a pro-homosexual lobbying group that, among things, is promoting a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-inclusive curricula for children in elementary school.

The HRC Web site states that the organization works for “equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.” These efforts include the “Welcoming Schools” program, which outlines how U.S. public schools should adopt policies to be LGBT inclusive, starting in elementary school.

The HRCʼs description of “What Welcoming Schools Offer” states, in part, the following: “Curriculum must be LGBT inclusive starting in elementary school for the following reasons: “Students learn more effectively when they see themselves reflected in the curriculum “Pressure to conform to gender roles can limit social and academic development “Name-calling and bullying have a negative impact on academic outcomes.

“From children's first years in school, when classes often take ʻthe familyʼ as their curricular focus, right through high school, there are many moments when LGBT issues are appropriate and relevant to the curriculum. For example, lesbian and gay authors and historical figures can be included in English and history classes; and the LGBT movement, itself, can be germane to civics and social studies courses. 

Students stand to gain significant advantages in those schools that have LGBT inclusive curriculum.”

President Obama last spoke at the HRCʼs national dinner in 2009. An announcement of Obamaʼs appearance on HRCʼs Web site said that this Saturdayʼs event will be streamed live online.