Common Core: Rotten to it’s leftist core

Graphic sex and praising Castro

We urge you to read the this FrontPage magazine article exposing the squalid leftist core of Common Core. Mary Grabar’s report underscores the myriad examples of radical ideology masquerading as education.

This exposé of the outrageous federalized curriculum shows yet another load heaped on the pile of garbage being promoted by the Obama administration and public school establishment, as they attempt to undermine our nation’s students by imposing dumbed-down, politicized curricular conformity in America’s classrooms.

Michelle Malkin has written extensively about “outcome-based education” since the early 1990s — describing “Goals 2000,” “No Child Left Behind,” and “Race to the Top” —  reporting the bipartisan Fed Ed standards movement isn’t about raising standards at all. Whether under Bush or Obama, it’s about top-down control engineered through government-administered tests and left-wing textbook monopolies.

Check out Arizonans Against Common Core.

If you disagree with the federal nationalization of our education system and want to see control returned to parents, teachers, and local districts, now is the time to get involved!

In early March the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republican Committee (EGC) voted on a resolution opposing the implementation of Common Core — the Obama Education Department’s program to nationalize America’s public schools. The resolution passed unanimously. 

If you’re just getting up to speed, this video is enlightening:

Weekend reading,viewing guaranteed to make you smarter

Column and Sunday morning show worth your attention

M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. is the Founder and President of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy. The Valley physician, a devout Muslim, is leading the fight to shake the hold that the terror-sponsoring Muslim Brotherhood and their network of American Islamist organizations and mosques seek to exert on organized Islam in America.

His “My Turn” commentary in the daily, “Muslims need to own how they’re portrayed,” [the title has been changed in the online version] provides excellent insight — from a unique perspective — into the root causes of “Islamic extremism — political Islam.”

His is a voice worthy of note. A former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, Jasser is an internationally recognized expert on the issues encompassing  political Islam and American Islamist organizations.

Dr. Jasser regularly briefs members of Congress on the threat of political Islam and has been called to testify on the issue of Muslim radicalization in the United States. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The New York Post, The Dallas Morning News, CNN, CBS, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and BBC in addition to nationally syndicated radio programs.

Earlier this morning, Dr. Jasser participated in a panel discussion titled “The roots of radicalization,” on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley. The specific focus was domestic radicalization and how to address it. Click to watch the video here.

JD Radio: Wed – Fri 4 Savage; Thurs 4 Huck, 2

The good news is we can hear JD Hayworth behind two prominent “national microphones” this week!

First, listen as he guest hosts for Michael Savage — this evening (Wednesday), Thursday & Friday evenings. You can hear all three hours 6 – 9:00 pm, AZ time via the web on KSFO.  Listen Live here…or if you’re in your car, you can hear two hours of the programming (7 – 9:00 pm, AZ) on 1100AM, KFNX.

Thursday, JD also guest hosts for Mike Huckabee…9:00 am – Noon, AZ time…again, you can Listen Live on KSFO…or you can hear two hours (tape delayed) from 1 – 3:00 pm on 1100AM, KFNX.

This adds up to not to be missed, unparalleled political education.  In today’s world, we need it.

Immigration: Addressing the harsh realities

Bi-partisan acknowledgment that the nation’s legal immigration system is also in need of repair

Earlier this week, as the nation was still reeling, trying to absorb the grisly aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings, Ann Coulter wrote a cogent column titled: The  problem isn’t just illegal immigration, it’s legal immigration, too. Coulter’s fact-filled commentary is our “Weekend reading guaranteed to make you smarter” recommendation.

Bob Beckel, ubitquitous liberal commentator and co-host of ‘The Five,’ appeared to catch his co-hosts off guard as he echoed similar thoughts. Beckel advocated for the temporary ending of student visas for foreign Muslim students as a means of combating homegrown terror.

Flores v. AZ: Tim Hogan’s never ending case

Back in 2009, in a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court took a major step toward ending what was then a 17-year legal battle in the Flores v. Arizona case. In their opinion, the justices wrote that lower courts erred by placing extraordinary focus on forcing Arizona to spend more money to assist English Language-Learner (ELL) students.

At the time, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote, the Court of Appeals “improperly substituted its own policy judgments for those of the state and local officials entrusted with the decision.”

Flores was sent back to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with instructions to consider whether Arizona had complied with civil-rights law by improving both English-learner programs and K-12 education policies.

The case was argued by Arizona’s then-Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne. He served in that capacity from 2003 – 2011. Horne was elected Arizona Attorney General in 2010. He and Jim Weiers, then-Speaker of the Arizona House were listed as petitioners.

The majority opinion was issued by Justice Alito and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Justice Stephen Breyer filed the 47-page dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens and David Souter. If you’re so inclined, the Supreme Court’s 89-page opinion can be read here.

Fast forward to 2013. The lawsuit has reached the ripe old age of 21. And whad’ya know? A federal court decision last month upholding the state’s English Language Learner programs is being appealed by Tim Hogan of the left-of-center Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest. The case is now renamed Flores v. Huppenthal. Associate Justices Souter (replaced by Sonia Sotomayor) and John Paul Stevens (replaced by Elena Kagan) have retired.

Today the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is fomer state senator John Huppenthal. He contends ELL students are making progress in the English program. Most test out of the program within three years. He believes the state will prevail in the lawsuit.

Tim Hogan remains, still representing the plaintiffs. Of his career-long case, Hogan has this to say. “We just think the district court judge has gotten the law wrong.”

The Center for Law in the Public Interest refers to itself as a “non-profit.” Obviously Hogan has been making a living from this long-in-the-tooth case.  What’s the funding source?

The daily’s coverage of this ongoing bonanza can be read here.

JD Radio: Monday and Tuesday!

JD Hayworth is back before a national audience as he again guest hosts for Mike Huckabee — today & tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday). Listen live from 9:00 am – Noon on KSFO Hot Talk.

In Phoenix, you can tune in on your radio dial to 1100 KFNX to hear the first two hours, via tape delay, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, Phoenix time.

Leftist school assignments: Think like a Nazi; doses of political bias

Ed Supe blames Common Core for “Jews are evil” assignment

The Times Union reports on a “sophisticated” assignment given to Albany High School students. They were to watch and read Nazi propaganda and then write an argument that Jews are evil and the source of Germany’s problems, using a Nazi perspective. “You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!,” their teacher instructed.  In addition, the students were asked to include ”any experiences you have with … Jews being evil.”

One third of the English class refused to participate in the assignment.

Albany Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard blamed tougher Common Core standards that require “sophisticated” writing linking English composition to other subjects, like world history.

Calling the exercise “especially tone deaf,” New York magazine noted that the assignment could have concerned a wide range of topics.

“I would apologize to our families,” Vanden Wyngaard said. “I don’t believe there was malice or intent to cause any insensitivities to our families of Jewish faith.” Vanden Wyngaard said that the teacher will face some kind of disciplinary action, which could range from a letter of reprimand to firing. “You asked a child to support the notion that the Holocaust was justified, that’s my struggle,” she said. “It’s an illogical leap for a student to make.”

There’s even more. EAG reports that eighth-graders in Wisconsin’s Union Grove School District were assigned to fill out a “Liberalism vs. Conservatism” crossword puzzle — learning some new and very questionable “facts” along the way.

In conjunction with their “civics” assignment the students got a good dose of political bias and indoctrination, as they learned conservatism is “the political belief of preserving traditional moral values by restricting personal freedoms.” And liberalism? That’s “the political belief of equality and personal freedom for everyone, often changing the current system to increase government protection of civil liberties.”

How about teachers coaching fourth graders at Cedar Hills Elementary in Jacksonville, Florida to write, “I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.” Read more here.

On its website, Education Action Group (EAG) says it shines a spotlight on the leftist agenda and activists and their mission to “fundamentally transform” the United States of America through the government education system.

Good luck. America’s children are being indoctrinated by these people each and every school day.

Gov. Jan Brewer: Doing Obama‘s job in AZ

Gov. Brewer is showing her allegiance to the Obama agenda in various ways — all of them troubling.  We recently wrote about the numerous statewide Legislative Districts and County Executive Committees that have passed resolutions in opposition to the Governor’s Medicaid Expansion (AHCCCS) in support of ObamaCare — which includes expansion of funding for abortion providers. We noted it was an odd step for the pro-life governor.

The entire Democrat caucus supported this outrageous and economically unsustainable government overreach.

Now Republican Brewer is touting her signing of HB 2425, a gigantic leap in implementing the Obama administration’s insidious Common Core Standards so beloved by the left. Every Democrat in both the AZ House and Senate voted for this bill, also. The Maricopa County Executive Guidance Committee unanimously passed a resolution opposing Common Core.

It is interesting to note that Gov. Brewer took 10 days before signing SB1070 into law.  Yet she took less than 10 hours to sign legislation supporting the Obama education plan endorsed by uber-liberal U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Conservative Columnist Michelle Malkin has a series devoted to this program, which she has aptly named Rotten to the Core. Gov. Brewer must have missed an installment or two.

H/T:  “Surrender art” GilbertWatch

AZ AG Horne victory: Judge upholds ethnic studies ban

Sanity prevails

Federal District Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima has ruled on Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) appeal of the ban on the ethnocentric Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program, upholding the ban. The law was held to be constitutional, with one minor exception, Section (A)(3).

Judge Tashima said objections did not “meet the high threshold to establish a constitutional violation.” The 31-page ruling can be read here.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, was formerly the two-term elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction when this issue arose. Horne, who personally argued the case in U.S. District Court in Tucson, issued this statement after the decision was announced: “This is a victory for ensuring that public education is not held captive to radical, political elements and that students treat each other as individuals — not on the basis of the race they were born into.”  His complete statement can be read here. The order was enforced the last day of Horne’s term and enacted by incoming Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal, whose name appears on the ruling. A search of his website lacked any press release regarding this defining issue for his office.

As Superintendent, Horne protested the program and was instrumental in passage of HB 2281 which “prohibits a school district or charter school from including courses or classes that either promote the overthrow of the United States government or promote resentment toward a race or class of people.” (Complete bill information here).

Interestingly, Horne had an unlikely ally in his efforts: The Arizona Republic.  On Jan. 4, 2011, the newspaper ran an editorial rightfully calling the data used to buttress the claims “repeated constantly by [the program’s] defenders that students perform better academically as a result of taking ethnic studies classes and that they go on to college more often” — “academically unsupportable.” Further the newspaper stated that officials who make such claims “are acting irresponsibly in doing so.” The editorial goes so far as to say the results “appear rigged.”

Enforcement of the law resulted in cancellation of TUSD’s racially discriminatory Mexican-American Studies Program after an independent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that the program presented material in a “biased, political, and emotionally charged manner.” The ALJ also stated: “Teaching in such a manner promotes social or political activism against white people, promotes racial resentment, and advocates ethnic solidarity instead of treating people as individuals.”

Readers can refresh their memories regarding this ongoing and radical saga here.  Horne was killed in effigy by students as a thuggish mob of La Raza Studies supporters tried to shout down the Attorney General.

Spring break: Stay safe, keep out of Mexico

Contradicting facts, AZ República promotes Mexico as destination for students

It’s that time again. For many, spring break means fun in the sun and a break from studies. But the Texas Department of Public Safety brings a strong dose of reality to revelers planning a trip to Mexico. “Don’t go.”

“There is an increase in Mexican drug cartel related violence in the northern Mexican border cities. Parents should not allow their children to visit these Mexican cities because their safety cannot be guaranteed,” Texas DPS director Steven C. McCraw has stated. A warning cited violent crime from battling drug cartels as reasons to avoid traveling anywhere south of the border.

“The situation in Mexico today is significantly different than it was just a decade ago,” said McCraw. “Many crimes against Americans in Mexico go unpunished, and we have a responsibility to inform the public about safety and travel risks and threats. Based on the unpredictable nature of cartel violence and other criminal elements, we are urging individuals to avoid travel to Mexico at this time.”

Mexico’s tourism chief Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete denounced the warning. “The DPS has the right to inform as they see fit, but we believe that what they are conveying in the content of the travel alert is not the reality in Mexico.”

Those reading this morning’s Periódico de la República de Arizona (Arizona Republic) are led to believe that all is copasetic. An article by Daniel Gonzales, touting the once popular Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) as a spring break destination, opens with a quote from a Mexican tourism official declaring Americans are becoming “more confident about safety” in the Sonoran beach town. This foolishness comes despite increases in reported robberies and assaults against U.S. citizens, a violent gun battle on a main street in the town last summer and the June 2010 shooting of the police chief and his body guard.

Even the U.S. State Department, acknowledging the violence, recently updated its traveler warning to Mexico by declaring a lengthy list of states and cities to be dangerous. But the feds dance around their alert, so as not to tangle with Mexican officials who repeatedly deny the danger, since tourism is a major source of revenue for the country. Canada is more forthright in its warnings, advising its citizens against non-essential travel to Mexico and to exercise  extreme caution due to high levels of organized crime and urban violence. However, the Feds clearly state, “U.S. citizens in Puerto Penasco are encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to bolster their personal security following a July 2012 mid-day gun battle between TCO members and increases in reported robberies and assaults against U.S. citizens.”

Fox News reports on the harrowing experience of 22 Carnival cruise ship passengers who were robbed at gunpoint by hooded bandits while returning from a nature hike near the tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta. Mexico’s tourism board labeled the attack a “rare and isolated incident.”

Last month, six tourists were violently gang-raped for hours in the resort community of Acapulco by armed thugs who broke into their apartment. The rapists celebrated their vicious attacks with mescal and spared one woman because she passed the ‘nationality test’ of being Mexican, the UK’s Daily Mail reports.

In 2009 Seeing Red AZ posted Spring break? Best advice: stay out of Mexico.

Thinking of a spring break destination? Stay away from Mexico was our 2010 post. The only thing that has changed is that criminality is becoming increasingly violent and does not exclude  tourists.

Travel to Mexico: Feds finally acknowledge extreme danger, April 2011 warnings specifically include Northern Sonora and Puerto Penasco.

Spring Break 2013?  Arizona’s own Lake Havasu is the hottest place to be.