French Inaction on known terror suspects brings more death

Islamic terrorism returns to France, knife, not gun used

The NRA has become a convenient whipping boy for the left, in instances where mass murder is committed with a gun. But increasingly, terrorist acts are carried out by vehicles being used as weapons, deliberately plowing into crowds. Knife attacks are becoming more frequent here and in Western Europe. The Boston Marathon carnage was carried out by two brothers, whose parents had come to the United States seeking political asylum. They used pressure cookers as explosives, but still the NRA takes the brunt of the blame.

France suffered another bloody attack on Saturday. The assailant, who was shot and killed by police, has been identified as Khamzat Azimov, 21, a native of Chechnya, who  became a French citizen in 2010. Witnesses reported Azimov repeatedly yelled, “Allahu akhbar” during the Paris attack. The French press reported that “a video emerged Sunday online purporting to show the attacker swearing allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

Not long after the rampage that killed one and seriously injured four others in a busy tourist area, the Islamic State took responsibility for the carnage.

France has a state security anti-terrorism watch list on which this most recent knife wielder has appeared since 2016 — but the attacker was neither detained nor deported. This was the second deadly attack in two months by a person flagged on the watch list. More than 230 people In France have been killed by ISIS-inspired jihadists in the past three years.

Without acknowledging the lack of follow-up on the collected data, French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said, “It is, once again, a way of life, our way of life, which has come under a cowardly attack.”

News accounts defended the government’s defenseless actions referring to renewed calls for enforcement as originating from “the conservative opposition.”

Sound familiar?

The leader of France’s largest opposition party renewed his call on President Emmanuel Macron to detain “the most dangerous individuals” on the watch list and expel all foreigners listed on it. “There is no longer room, Mr. President, for this blind inaction which has lasted too long,” Laurent Wauquiez of the conservatives Les Republicains said in a statement.

“What use can this file be if we don’t use it to ensure that these time bombs cannot do any harm on French soil?” National Front leader Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter.

But Griveaux contended: “Unfortunately, there is no way of stopping this sort of incident from happening.” The security watch list was a key tool for police and intelligence services, he said, adding that “experts were opposed to using it as a basis for roundups or deportations.”

Paris is nearly 4,000 miles from Washington, D.C. though the same foolish arguments leave citizens at risk.

Advertisements

John McCain a poetry buff?

Decades ago, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas wrote a poem dedicated to his frail and aged father that began with these words:

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Those familiar with Arizona’s now seriously ailing senior senator, known for his salty tongue, colluding with liberals and crassness, would find it difficult to view him as a devotee of poetry. But John McCain’s recent actions show him to be raging against the ravages of his final illness and the encroaching loss of “the light,” obviously taking Dylan Thomas’ words to his own dying father to heart.

This past week alone, in an excerpt from his soon-to-be released memoir, actually written by his longtime confidant and biographer Mark Salter, McCain needlessly insulted Sarah Palin — his 2008 VP selectee — saying that he should have followed his better instincts and put Democrat Joe Lieberman on his ticket as his vice presidential running mate. It’s clear he missed seeing the profusion of bumper stickers on Arizona roadways that were sliced horizontally across the middle, removing the name McCain and leaving Palin. When chauffeurs do the driving bumper stickers aren’t in your sight line.

Devoid of class even in his waning days, he has issued an exclusionary guest list for his funeral, intentionally omitting Donald Trump, the President of the United States, who incurred McCain’s wrath for winning the nation‘s top office, a feat that eluded McCain. Fellow Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) calling the move “ridiculous,” later apologizing for his remark.

Though he repeatedly led failed attempts partnering with Democrats to grant amnesty — including eventual citizenship — to those illegally invading the U.S., McCain condemns Republicans for adhering to the Rule of Law and expecting our generous legal immigration policy to be followed.

Widely reported at the time, McCain finally acknowledges delivering a discredited, inflammatory “dossier” to then-FBI Director James Comey containing what turned out to be false allegations against President Trump. “I discharged that obligation, and I would do it again. Anyone who doesn’t like it can go to hell,” McCain states in his biography.

McCain’s latest gambit, reported on Wednesday, is his urging the U.S. Senate to reject Gina Haspel’s nomination to become CIA director, claiming she was unable to satisfactorily address concerns regarding her role in the use of enhanced interrogation techniques during the Bush administration. Her assurances that the practices that served to provide valuable information are no longer used, is of no consequence to McCain‘s operatives who issued a defamatory statement in his behalf.

Rather than seeking peace at the end of his life, the still angry McCain brazenly continues to “rage, rage against the dying of the light,” even when there is nothing substantive to incur his wrath.

Yielding to REDsforED Socialist demands emboldens them & Updates

Arizona #REDSforED teachers’ walkout continued through day five on Tuesday, with the strikers still claiming their self-serving actions are “for the children.” Parents are prepared for more of the same today.

Arizona Educators United which organized the thuggish actions is full of demands, Though some of its more revealing pages have been removed from its site the agenda which reverberates with words such as “collectivism” and “solidarity” that would make Lenin and Marx proud, boldly identifies itself as “an open platform that empowers individuals and groups to organize for progressive causes.”

 The latest schemes include a ballot measure to enshrine their liberalism into law and a plan to tax the rich at ever higher rates to fund their increasingly disreputable demands. Like so many liberals, they forget that “the rich” supply jobs that raise up individuals and benefit families. They are the people who took risks and worked long hours to realize their dreams of entrepreneurship. They are those we should aspire to emulate. Liberals view them with contempt.

Noah Karvelis a 23-year-old hip-hop music enthusiast and Bernie Sander‘s campaign worker, has morphed into a leader of the teacher’s group, which explains its obvious leftist lurch. This is a recent Karvelis tweet.

The Washington Free Beacon runs an informative exposé, titled, “Bipartisan’ Arizona Teacher Protest is Led by Democratic Operative.” On April 25, SRAZ posted AZ teachers’ strike leader admits “teaching is political.”

Teachers unions, funded to the tune of $millions by dues paying teachers are notoriously left-wing, almost exclusively supporting liberal candidates and causes.*

On Friday, the Goldwater Institute advised Arizona school districts that the teacher walkout was illegal and warned that if the schools did not “resume educating children immediately; they risk legal action by parents and students.”

But AZ GOP Chairman Jonathan Lines waffles, urging support of the Gov. Ducey’s 20% pay increase magically implemented “without raising taxes” for the striking teachers who have held Arizona students hostage for a solid week. He deserves an F for effort. Lines also runs a reveal of Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a position reportedly paying over $500,000 yearly. Weingarten is a known Democrat operative who gave an impassioned speech introducing Dem presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at both AFT’s 2016 convention and the Democrat’s national convention. She is coming to Arizona to rally teachers against the 20% pay hike.  They were cheerfully dancing and playing musical instruments at the state Capitol Tuesday.

 “The message is very clear,” Lines naively states. “Democrats are using our teachers as political pawns. Our children are the ones who lose in this partisan stunt.”

Democrats are not using teachers as pawns. They are willingly washing one another’s backs. What would possess Lines, the father of eleven, to support the Ducey plan of acquiescing to the increasingly wild union demands?

*Center for Responsive Politic

WWednesday, May 2

Wed. May 2, 2018:

#REDSforED teachers lie

The poor excuses for Arizona teachers have reneged on their promise to return to their jobs Thursday, now saying they “will call in sick.” Today marks day six of holding the students they claim to care about as hostages.

“Sick” is what many parents feel — along with betrayed, frustrated and distrustful of anything the marauding teachers do or say. Extending the school year to make up for lost instruction time impacts negatively on many of the estimated 800,000 students and families, who have long-planned family vacations and have purchased tickets to travel based on what they regarded as the scheduled last day of school. Others have paid for summer camp. Older students leaving for college, military service or with church mission plans need their transcripts. The self-serving, liberal unionist teachers don’t give a rip, but expect loyalty, nonetheless. Many, protesting and dancing at the state Capitol, are blithely unaware how badly they’ve burned bridges with students, their families and the general public, none of whom could walk off their jobs and expect to have them when they return after first demanding 20 percent raises and now wanting more.

The Hillary Clinton endorsing Arizona Republic headlines Thursday’s lead editorial, “#RedForEd offers lesson in civics,” quoting liberal Democrat state Sen. Steve Farley, who is now running for governor. The week long shenanigans are indeed a lesson, though not in civics.  We are witnessing extreme acts of intimidation by contracted teachers who have morphed into unionist hooligans led by leftist thugs. 

Thurs. May 3, 2018

REDSforEd teachers teach students two important lessons:

1. Students are easily held hostage and provide a useful means to an end. Kids are tools in the left’s arsenal.
2. Mob rule trumps contractual obligations for the members of the far-left Teachers unions, as Gov. Ducey and the legislature caved to their raucous demands

McCain: I won’t run again — as if it were an option

No, it’s not a joke, though the slavishly obsequious report stretches credulity. The McCain toadies at the Arizona Republic bring news of John McCain’s new book, “The Restless Wave,” scheduled for a May 22 release. The title evokes visions of female navy members McCain might have pursued during his youthful escapades.

Now 81 and diagnosed with an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer by his Mayo Clinic neurosurgeons in July 2017. No one has heard his voice, though his wife and daughter assure us he‘s making an “amazing recovery.” In one of his last public appearances in the U.S. Senate, he cast the deciding vote against the “skinny repeal” of Obamacare, and was cheered by Democrats while stunning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who had held off the vote to accommodate McCain due to the razor thin Republican edge. McCain didn’t say a word, but voted a Caligula-like thumbs down. (19-second video.)

The book, like other McCain titles, was written by his former chief of staff, Mark Salter, who dutifully takes second billing. McCain’s staffers, who have worked in his stead posting press releases, tweets, (currently unavailable according to his office) and issuing contrived floor statements, giving the semblance of smooth sailing to a rudderless office. They wait anxiously for word that they can move past putting up a false front, although the money is good  (place cursor over salary to see the full amount) and the job is not strenuous.

“This is my last term,” the 81-year-old McCain concedes in the memoir. “I’m freer than colleagues who will face the voters again.”

McCain, who ran as a Republican and spent his decade’s long career colluding with the most liberal of Democrats, even voting to confirm liberals to the federal judiciary and other key posts, preposterously states, “I can speak my mind without fearing the consequences much. And I can vote my conscience without worry. I don’t think I’m free to disregard my constituents’ wishes, far from it. I don’t feel excused from keeping pledges I made. Nor do I wish to harm my party’s prospects. But I do feel a pressing responsibility to give Americans my best judgment.”

Longtime Arizonans have yet to see evidence of what might constitute his “best judgment.” He has taken potshots at President Trump at every opportunity, even hand-carrying to then FBI Director, James Comey, what turned out to be a phony anti-Trump “dossier,” in a blatant attempt to discredit the president.

SRAZ has referred to Arizona’s Senior Senator by the acronym of ASS. A venomous viper, ASP might be more accurate.

McCain, who has unethically lied about his political opponents, implausibly now complains about the nation’s “decline in civility.” John Sidney McCain, III, has made a lack of civility the  hallmark of his overly long career.

#REDS for ED: Union thugs demand more $ for less

Over 1,000 AZ schools shut down as teachers abandon more than 840,000 students while farcically claiming, “It’s for the children”

Don’t be lulled into taking the bait that striking teachers actually care about their students, as some were reportedly looking for “alternative care” and packing rudimentary sack lunches to sustain students during their union driven absence from schools.

Teaching was a career choice that was entered into by the strikers, with the goal of educating, not providing day care. Yet day care is unfortunately what most students get. Teachers had an idea of the salary range when they trained for the jobs that gave them summers off, numerous and lengthy holidays along with contrived half-day schedules.  If they were looking for six-figure careers, they should have gone into professions that required advanced degrees and expected long hours. Doctors making hospital rounds before and after office hours, CPAs working weekends and into the night during the months leading up to the April 15, tax filing deadline, lawyers meticulously preparing for lengthy trials with life or death consequences, come to mind.

Demanding a 20% pay hike while turning out kids who can barely read, problem solve, find British Columbia on a map, explain the events of 9/11 or comprehend the basics of American history is nothing short of extortion. Cursive, considered passé, is no longer taught, relegating signatures to antiquity status. Our kids are instructed in normalizing LGBTQ issues; global warming, which mutated to climate change when temperatures cooled; and they are recycling whizzes, but unable to keep pace academically with South Korean students.

This 2017 Pew Research Center data shows U.S. students’ academic achievement on science, math and reading scores significantly lags behind those of their peers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Estonia and Taiwan — to name a few.

Gov. Doug Ducey foolishly buckled to the unionists’ outrageous salary demands, claiming there would be no accompanying tax increase. Unless he’s a fool or a sleight-of-hand magician, he knows that’s an impossibility and so do taxpaying parents, who would like to see some bang for their bucks.

An estimated 50,000 Arizona teachers and their hangers-on marched to the state Capitol Thursday — many deriding Ducey for not doing enough — now increasing their demands to include higher wages for support staff, counselors, bus drivers and janitors, who unlike the teachers, were not paid during the walk out.  Many strikers plan to resume their protests today.

We remind you that teachers are represented by far-left unions. The $ millions teachers pay in dues fund liberal politicians and their causes.

Teachers unions have steadily amped up their political involvement: From 2004 to 2016, their donations grew from $4.3 million to more than $32 million — an all-time high. Even more than most labor unions, they have little use for Republicans, giving Democrats at least 94 percent of the funds they contributed to candidates and parties since as far back as 1990 when Center for Responsive Politics initially began collecting data.

Passage of ballot propositions — 301 in 2000 increasing the state sales tax and 123 in 2016 a grab from the state land trust — guaranteed more money for education, which apparently is never enough. School districts routinely hold budget overrides and bond elections to “get more money into the classroom” —- eduspeak for bolstering teacher’s salaries. A major premise of passing the Arizona Lottery in 1980 was that money from ticket sales would fund schools.

We’ve been had, but it’s Arizona’s under-educated children who will ultimately suffer.

A simple solution to halt AZ pedestrian deaths

Common sense enforcement needed, not study committees 

Arizona has a problem with pedestrian fatalities. According to data released by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), which lists by state, we have the highest rate in the entire nation. Hawaii, which is not a border state, has the lowest. Making the numbers even more compelling is the fact that Maricopa County has the unenviable distinction of coming in second in fatalities of all U.S. counties.

The City of Phoenix, under the thumb of leftwing Mayor Greg Stanton —– a self described “progressive,” now running for congress —- jumped into action with the creation of a board to study the crisis. ‘Complete Streets’ has made recommendations after blaming the high fatality rate on our “streetscape.”

What?  You haven’t previously heard that word? That’s because you’re not a liberal urban planner, public health advocate dealing with sustainability, and complete streets, multi-modal/transportation planning and design or health impact assessments. Many of the board members are “quality of life” specialists.

Check out the Complete Streets Advisory Board Roster and their specialties.

An assemblage of nearly a dozen such luminaries is impressive, if you’re into costly social transformation. They addressed the Phoenix City Council demanding council members accelerate the process and adopt the “Complete Streets Guidelines” to make streets safer for pedestrians.

The group blames pedestrian fatalities on economic conditions, demographics, weather, fuel prices, and the amount of time people spend walking. Ergo, if you’re poor, snow drifts are high, you have to walk while texting, you could be an accident waiting to happen.

Among the concepts to alleviate such deficiencies provided for in the guidelines are more sidewalks, reducing the rate of traffic, shade structures and trees, including increased night time lighting.  The slowing of traffic, more lighting and planting of trees clearly conflict with the need to reduce gas, electricity and water consumption previously favored by “sustainability” alarmists. 

There is a simpler and less costly way to address the increase in pedestrian deaths. Begin ticketing people who refuse to use marked crosswalks. This was once known as “jaywalking” and was a ticketable offense. Now officers in patrol cars, concerned about negatively impacting cultural mores, blithely sail past mothers standing on the median with a flock of tykes, waiting for a traffic break to hustle them across the busy street, ignoring the nearby crosswalk and traffic signal.

Crosswalks are routinely disregarded. The attitude is, lines in the street are put there by authority figures and should be avoided regardless of the fact that they save lives. It’s a foolish, often ethnic-based, power struggle that has made Arizona the leader in pedestrian deaths. This is a fact you can be certain the ‘Complete Streets’ committee won’t address.

Students learn the art of mob rule from teachers

Emulating their protesting teachers who staged walkouts, abandoning their students to demand an outrageous 20% pay hike, the kids who have learned little educationally have become adept at demanding.  Not understanding the significance of the Second Amendment, they want gun control, and the brash, under-educated students want it now.

Here in Arizona, they are going to the state capitol — possibly for the first time — to stage a “die in” to protest school shootings by lying on the ground in a mock death pose.  Using mob-like tactics, they also plan to occupy several government buildings to demand Gov. Doug Ducey support stricter gun control laws. The demands and antics are coordinated with students nationwide.

The date was chosen to commemorate the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado. In 1999, two maniacal students killed twelve students and a teacher, before killing themselves. The assassins deliberately chose the date to coincide with the birthday of Nazi mass murderer Adolf Hitler.

Organizers are not satisfied with Gov. Ducey’s school safety plan which includes placing officers in Arizona schools.

The National School Walkout has a Walkout Planning Guide and announced this three part goal:

1. Hold elected officials accountable
2. Promote solutions to gun violence
3. Demystify and engage students in the political system

If the students were properly educated, there would be no need to “demystify” our system of government.

A decidedly liberal approach is manifest in this tip to protesters titled, “A Note on Safety and Privilege.” White privilege is the latest crime for which atonement must be made, and these radicals haven’t left that out of the equation:

“Guidance on how to plan your actions to ensure that no one is asked to take on a role that they are not comfortable with, and how to be mindful of the fact that not everyone walking out faces an equal level of risk.”

The Arizona legislature is scheduled to begin debate on the issue later this week. According to the daily newspaper’s report, student marchers have derided the governor’s efforts, calling it “51 pages of utter BS.” They also view any efforts at reform as placating the National Rifle Association.

The demonstrators need to talk to Kim Corban, (brief video) who calls the National Rifle Association, “Freedom’s Safest Place.”

These are the educrat liberals behind the Network for Public Education, the moving force propelling the anti-Second Amendment organization, propagandizing* America‘s easy to manipulate under-educated youth.

* Center for Responsive Politics