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Texan AG Calls For ‘Warriors’ For Freedom

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by John Griffing

World Net Daily

 

Only weeks after Texas attorney general candidate Barry Smitherman declared Texas should be prepared to go it alone if the U.S. economy collapses, the current occupant of the office, Greg Abbott, a Republican candidate for governor, is calling for “warriors” for freedom. gregabbott22

Smitherman, currently the chief of the Texas Railroad Commission, believes economic collapse could happen to the rest of the United States, not Texas. And he talked about energy policy as a way to make sure Texas commerce will continue. When he looks to the future, he focuses on Texas, because he believes there might not be the rest of the United States.

He said while he does not advocate secession, his state needs to be economically prepared for the expected coming tumult in the global energy market.

Now Abbott, who gave Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, his start in politics, is entering the national discourse on issues of state sovereignty and Texas self-government.

In an interview with WND, the state attorney general said Texas “will not back down in protecting our liberty or state sovereignty.”

“I’ve already sued the Obama administration 28 times to defend our rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution,” he said. “As governor, I will shift from the general in the battlefield to the commander-in-chief in our fight against federal government overreach.”

Before his election to the U.S. Senate, Cruz was Texas solicitor general and argued several landmark cases with Abbott before the U.S. Supreme Court. The cases included one challenging the intrusion of the World Court — to which the U.S. is not a party — into a state murder case and another protecting the display of the Ten Commandments on the Texas Capitol grounds.

In the World Court case against Mexican national Jose Medellín, Abbott recalled that he protected state sovereignty against not only the United States but also against Mexico and the World Court.

Medellín was sentenced to death in Texas for raping and killing two teenagers in Houston. Mexico, the International Court of Justice and the Bush administration insisted that the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations required Texas to give up its sovereign power to prosecute Medellín and that Texas was obliged to reopen his case and have it reconsidered, he said.

“The U.S. Supreme Court rejected those arguments and agreed with Texas, protecting our authority to enforce our state laws,” said Abbott.

Cruz and Abbott share an affinity for states’ rights as defined by the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Abbott joined other attorneys general around the country in a suit against the federal government for Obamacare, based on the Tenth Amendment.

The Tenth Amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Abbott sees potential for the Tenth Amendment to be used to reclaim state-level jurisdiction in the place of what he calls federal “abusiveness.”

“The Tenth Amendment is gaining new life. I – and my fellow attorneys general – relied on the Tenth Amendment in the Obamacare case. Even though the Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare was a tax, the court also used the case to breath new life into the Tenth Amendment by ruling that Congress could not force states to expand Medicaid systems against their will,” he said.

“In voting rights, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the Tenth Amendment give states – not the federal government – the authority to regulate elections. Texas is applying that Tenth Amendment victory to enforce its Voter ID law,” Abbott continued.

The Tenth Amendment also has guided Abbott in his opposition to Transportation Security Administration airport passenger body searches and scanning technology, which many believe aalso violate the Fourth Amendment.

Legislation introduced in 2012 to bar unpopular and constitutionally questionable body searches in Texas public transit centers had broad support in both houses of the Texas legislature,. However, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, incumbent in a contentious primary, convinced a majority of senators to swing their vote when the Obama administration pressured Dewhurst on federal funding.

In addition to commenting at length on broad issues of constitutional and legal significance, Abbott stated his plan for the common core curriculum prototype used in 80 percent of Texas schools called “CSCOPE.”

As WND recently reported, months after the controversial curriculum that compared the Boston Tea Party to an act of terrorism and called Islamic radicals “freedom fighters” was pronounced dead by Texas state legislators, some school districts are refusing to stop using the curriculum.

Further, a few state education officials are encouraging disregard of the law banning CSCOPE lessons from classrooms.

“As governor, I will drive a stake through the heart of CSCOPE, he said. “It’s disturbing that Texas education curriculum would portray the Boston Tea Party patriots as terrorists. Just as disturbing is that the curriculum was shielded from parents. I believe parents should have access to all materials teachers provide to children. The state continues its investigation into the actions of CSCOPE.”

Abbott said that during the legislative session, he supported SB 1406 by Sen. Dan Patrick to restrict the use of CSCOPE materials in Texas classrooms.

“I’ve been working with the state auditor concerning issues raised about contracting for services commissioned by the governing board of CSCOPE,” he said.

In the latest report on CSCOPE, WND outlined financial irregularities prompting a full forensic audit by the state, including millions of taxpayer dollars paid to out-of-state individuals without formal contract.

On the future of America and whether or not it will endure as a free country, Abbott said: “Liberty lies at the heart of American greatness. America is great not because of government, but because of freedom.”

He said there is “an arc in the story of America, and it bends toward freedom.”

“From Valley Forge to Vicksburg, from the Civil War to Civil Rights, from the Cold War to the War on Terror, Americans have always remembered that freedom is worth fighting for. We must reignite the passion for that freedom. But it takes more than words or thoughts,” he said. “It takes warriors.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/texan-ag-calls-for-warriors-for-freedom/#p4VlKPBQTFDFrORs.99

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DOJ: GOVERNMENTS CAN PUNISH HOMESCHOOLERS

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author-image  BOB UNRUH

homeschool family

The U.S. Department of Justice has revealed in a court filing it agrees with the philosophy of the German government that bureaucrats can punish homeschooling parents.

And the agency explained parental rights to keep their children free from instruction that violates their faith essentially are negligible when the government’s goal is an “open society.”

The arguments were made in a pleading before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that encourages the judges to send a German homeschooling family, the Romeikes, back to Germany where members likely would face persecution.

“The goal in Germany is for an ‘open, pluralistic society,’” wrote the government’s pleading, signed by Senior Litigation Counsel Robert N. Markle in Washington. So, he said, there is a law requiring attendance by all at government schools and punishment is levied against anyone failing to comply, whether they are truant or have religious objections to the indoctrination at the public schools.

His argument to the appellate court cited from a German court decision, which stated: “The general public has a justified interest in counteracting the development of religiously or philosophically motivated ‘parallel societies’ and in integrating minorities in this area. Integration does not only require that the majority of the population does not exclude religious or ideological minorities, but, in fact, that these minorities do not segregate themselves and that they do not close themselves off to a dialogue with dissenters and people of other beliefs. Dialogue with such minorities is an enrichment for an open pluralistic society. The learning and practicing of this in the sense of experienced tolerance is an important lesson right from the elementary school stage. The presence of a broad spectrum of convictions in a classroom can sustainably develop the ability of all pupils in being tolerant and exercising the dialogue that is a basic requirement of democratic decision-making process.”

Markle said since all parents whose children don’t attend mandatory public school classes – homeschoolers and truants alike, the punishment for all is fair.

The German family had withdrawn their children from German schools over teachings on sex, violence and other issues that conflicted with their Christian faith.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/doj-governments-can-punish-homeschoolers/#fZlmKQo2ti0557Sq.99

 

The DOJ also brought in international court rulings, noting that, “The European Court of Human Rights has held that parents could not refuse the right to education of a child on the basis of the parents’ convictions, because the child has an independent right to education.”

Such rulings in Europe have been used to confirm that it is the state that makes decisions about education for children, not parents.

“According to the court, this latter right, by its nature, calls for regulation by the state, which enjoys a degree of flexibility in setting up and interpreting rules governing its education system,” the DOJ wrote.

The DOJ continued, “The court upheld the German law, noting – importantly for purposes of this petition – that compulsory attendance does not deprive parents of their right to exercise, with respect to their children, ‘natural parental functions as educators or to guide their children on a path in line with the parents’ own religious or philosophical convictions.’

“The parents are free to attend to their children’s religious training and to offer the children opposing viewpoints from those taught in school, should they feel it necessary to do so,” the DOJ wrote.

The Home School Legal Defense Association, which is fighting on behalf of the family, said, Germany’s actions amount to persecution – a platform on which the Romeikes should be granted asylum.

“Silencing the ‘intolerant’ to promote tolerance is not only illogical; it is antithetical to any theory of freedom of conscience,” the organization argued earlier.

A panel of the court had rejected the family’s asylum request, the HSLDA asked for rehearing, and the court ordered the DOJ to respond.

“Attorney General [Eric] Holder is trying to seek dismissal of this case because he believes that targeting specific groups in the name of tolerance is within the normal legitimate functions of government,” said Michael Farris, HSLDA founder. “This cannot be the ultimate position of the United States without denying the essence of our commitment to liberty.

“We’re trying to provide a home for this family who would otherwise go back to facing fines, jail time, and forcible removal of their children because of their religious convictions about how their children should be educated. Why Attorney General Holder thinks that it is appropriate for any country to do this to a family simply for homeschooling is beyond me.”

Farris had warned that the court’s position has far-reaching consequences.

“When the United States government says that homeschooling is a mutable choice, it is saying that a government can legitimately coerce you to change this choice,” Farris said. “In other words, you have no protected right to choose what type of education your children will receive. We should understand that in these arguments, something very concerning is being said about the liberties of all Americans.

“I’m glad Obama wasn’t in charge in 1620,” Farris said in an appearance on “Fox and Friends.” “The government’s arguments in this case confuse equal persecution with equal protection and demonstrate a serious disregard for individual religious liberty. I really wonder what would’ve happened to the Pilgrims under this administration.”

HSLDA said the Romeikes fled from Germany to the United States to legally homeschool. An immigration judge who heard their case ruled they had a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to German, so granted them asylum.

Their children had been undergoing indoctrination in Germany on issues of sexual permissiveness and leftist political ideology when the family decided to act.

But the Obama administration, unhappy with the outcome, appealed.

Michael Donnelly, HSLDA’s director of international affairs who works with persecuted homeschoolers worldwide, said, “Germany persecutes homeschoolers. Exorbitant fines, custody threats, and imprisonment over homeschooling should be seen for what it is – persecution. It is unconscionable for the 6th Circuit to ignore black and white edicts from the German Supreme Court explicitly condoning this behavior. Germany’s countrywide federal and state policies that essentially ban home education should not be accepted as complying with basic human rights standards.”

WND has reported on the case since its inception. Just weeks ago, HSLDA officials launched a petition on a White House website to seek help. The White House policy is to provide a response to petitions that collect more than 100,000 signatures, but nothing has been heard since the threshold was passed more than a month ago.

The German Supreme Court said because of the issue of socialization, the state, not parents, decides how children are educated.

“This is dangerous precedent. One that Americans ignore at their peril,” Donnelly said.

“This is the nightmare of German parents – even non-homeschooling parents have suffered by being fined and sent to jail seeking to exercise reasonable discretion over their children’s education such as opting them out of certain objectionable presentations of material that violates their convictions. German states don’t tolerate differences in education – they just want uniformity. But fundamental human rights and even international law requires Germany to respect the superior right of parents over education of children.”

As WND reported, police officers appeared on their Romeike’s doorstep in Germany in 2006 to forcibly take their children to a local public school.

Germany is notorious for its attacks on homeschooling families. In one case several years ago, a young teen was taken from her family and put into a psychiatric ward because she was homeschooled. Fines and even jail terms are common.

WND previously reported on a law journal article that undermines the Obama administration’s arguments.

The article, “Germany Homeschoolers as ‘Particular Society Group’: Evaluation Under Current U.S. Asylum Jurisprudence,” was written by Miki Kawashima Matrician and published in the 2011 Boston College International and Comparative Law Review.

The journal article said, “The BIA should find that all German homeschoolers comprise a ‘particular social group,’ regardless of whether the Romeike family successfully established a claim of ‘well-founded fear of persecution.’”

The problem is that a Nazi-era law in Germany in 1938, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, eliminated exemptions that would provide an open door for homeschoolers under the nation’s compulsory education laws.

Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, previously wrote on the issue in a blog, explaining the German government “has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion.”

As WND reported, the German government believes schooling is critical to socialization, as is evident in its response to parents who objected to police officers picking up their child at home and delivering him to a public school.

“The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-called homeschooling,” said a government letter. “… You complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by the responsible local police officers. … In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/doj-governments-can-punish-homeschoolers/#fZlmKQo2ti0557Sq.99

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THREAT OF SUBPONEA PRODUCES TEXAS CURRICULUM RECORDS

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JOHN GRIFFING

WORLD NET DAILY

CSCOPE, a controversial school curriculum management system in Texas that once included a description of the Boston Tea Party as an act of terror and has called Islamic terrorists freedom fighters has given up pages of its financial records under threat of a subpoena by state Sen. Dan Patrick.

 

Patrick sought the records after Texans told him they had uncovered financial irregularities in the organization’s operations.

 

Patrick threatened CSCOPE with a subpoena of all financial documents if disclosure was not achieved voluntarily. CSCOPE TEXASprovided 5,000 pages of documents in response to Patrick’s request, and the information now is being reviewed.

 

“I’m glad that the CSCOPE board finally recognized that they must respond to our request for detailed financial information,” said Patrick. “I only wish I didn’t have to threaten a subpoena before getting this information.

 

“For some reason the board at CSCOPE believes they are above open disclosure and total transparency to parents and legislators,” Patrick added.

 

CSCOPE is owned by a corporate nonprofit started in 2009 called the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC). TESCCC is comprised of 20 separate “Education Service Centers” who all pay for the right to sell CSCOPE as a product to independent school districts.

 

Board members of the TESCCC claimed for months that no financial documentation existed, since all funds leave the nonprofit and are transferred to a “fiscal agent,” a claim which has stumped some financial experts who told WND that only public agencies have “fiscal agents,” and that a nonprofit must show distribution of funds.

 

According Chriss Street, the former treasurer of Orange County, Calif., and the individual who was instrumental in exposing the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s, the TESCCC reporting methods are questionable.

 

“The Texas Educational Service Center Curriculum Collaborative appears to have not applied for a Government Exempt, or a Tax Exempt 501C-3 or 501C-4 determination letter. I have made an investigation and have not discovered any Government Exempt or Tax Exempt determination letters on file,” said Street.

 

“There is no federal or state requirement for individuals or associations without revenue or sales to file any tax reporting. But it is my understanding and belief that TESCCC appears to have substantial sales and significant fee income and may be fully taxable as a trade or business and or subject to gift taxes,” Street added.

 

All nonprofits are required to file what is called a “Return of organization exempt from income tax” – form 990 – which would show income and distribution. CSCOPE has never filed a form 990, even though it handles millions of dollars annually.

 

As Patrick told the press in his release of May 10, “It was clear to me the non-profit was set up to hide information from someone. I’m glad the board is beginning to understand they are a public entity and the people of Texas and the legislature have a right to their records.”

 

TESCCC board minutes obtained by WND show that expenses and payments have been approved by the nonprofit, yet no public record exists for these transactions.

 

According to information sent to WND through citizen public information requests, the TESCCC also did business with companies without formal contracts, and paid millions of taxpayer dollars to these companies.

 

“National Education Resources, Inc. (NER),” which turns out to be a single individual, James Jennings, who filed a DBA under his residential address, received over $6 million from the TESCCC without a formal contract, records show.

 

The documents indicate that CSCOPE did not have a contract with NER until spring 2011, when the contract was put in place and made retroactive to July 2010.

 

NER was paid an estimated $3 million from 2010-2011 and about $3 million 2011-2012, records show.

 

The TESCCC (CSCOPE nonprofit) voted against conducting an audit or background check of Jennings when his two-year contract was negotiated. When the contract termed out, CSCOPE gave Jennings another $213,000 during the summer, when teachers were not even utilizing CSCOPE.

 

CSCOPE’s original price tag was just over $4 million, but schools are required to lease the product annually, and costs by district can exceed the $1 million mark. Ector County ISD paid $1.7 million in a single year for what certified curriculum professional and WND education correspondent Mary Bowen says is a “glorified calendar.”

 

WND previously reported on a school district’s attempt to charge parents for copies of CSCOPE lessons that are the property of taxpayers.

 

Amy Zimmerman, a mother in the Collinsville Independent School District, asked to see the 7th grade CSCOPE science lessons used between September 2012 and May 2013, citing her “parental right” under state law.

 

But Zimmerman received a letter from an attorney for the district requiring the payment of $770 to see the materials.

 

CSCOPE has faced heavy criticism by parents, teachers and legislators, culminating in legislative hearings that revealed serious academic deficiencies in the areas of math, science and English, as well as what many critics believe is an agenda-driven bias in social studies content that promotes a negative view of America.

 

WND has reported on lessons claiming the Boston Tea Party was a terrorist act, and lessons requiring students to design flags for a new communist country. The latter lesson was created in October 2012.

 

Teachers also have told WND:

 

  • Lessons are not matched to grade level; a ninth-grade lesson asks students to circle capital letters in a sentence.
  • One social studies lesson teaches that capitalism is obsolete and communism is the best economic system, using a diagram that shows a man climbing a ladder towards communism.
  • A third-grade lesson defines American “equality” as “fair share.” Competing definitions that include “equality under the law” or “equal opportunity” are not discussed.
  • Muhammad is portrayed as a social justice crusader. There is no mention of his marriage to a young girl or his beheading of indigenous population groups.
  • Political parties are taught from what critics claim is a subjective and left-leaning perspective, e.g. Democrats “benefit each individual” while Republicans “favor big business.”

 

WND has also recently acquired lessons covering the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, teaching students that “medicine” and “food” are “rights,” and not a matter of personal responsibility.

 

Students who do not answer that “medicine” and “food” are “rights” have their answers marked as incorrect, sources report.

 

Other controversial lesson content includes a science lesson that instructs students to set things on fire in the middle of class and also lessons that promote anorexia and mercy death, according to Bowen.

 

CSCOPE also has come under fire for its secrecy and lack of transparency, forcing teachers and districts to sign “user agreements” – what whistleblowers say amount to “gag orders.”

 

Teachers are exposed to legal liability if they share lesson content or other class materials with the general public, and threats of termination have been reported by teachers who attempt to engage parents about controversial CSCOPE content.


Read more at 
http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/threat-of-subpoena-produces-texas-curriculum-records/#s2THHLHCzJigwhWA.99

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WHO IS MARY ANN WHITEKER?

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PRO MARXIST educator Mary Ann Whiteker is the Superintendent of Hudson ISD in East Texas. Ms. Whiteker is also the legislative chair for left leaning group Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) that taxpayers fund through their local school districts

. Ms. Whitaker spoke at the Save Texas School Rally this past February in support of pursuing what else…”MORE MONEY” for schools.

Ms. Whiteker is a staunch supporter of the Marxist Curriculum CSCOPE that her school district has purchased and implemented. Why are our school superintendents content to indoctrinate your children?

Educators attempt their education intimidating techniques using stating that  CSCOPE provides a SCOPE and SEQUENCE, CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS, 21st Century Learning, RIGOR, RIGOR, RIGOR (I am sick of that word).

 

Ms. Whiteker released the following article scolding private citizens across the state of Texas who are concerned that their school district has purchased and implemented  a Marxist, Pro Islamic, Pro Communist, Anti Christian Curriculum.

Superintendents across the state are not doing their jobs in protecting your children when they fail to acknowledge what CSCOPE is and stop it’s implementation. What exactly are they profiting from this leaves one to wonder?

Ms. Whiteker is one such superintendent who is  pursuing her own liberal agenda and not putting your children first.

Here is Ms. Whiteker TASA’s presentation on the CREATING a NEW VISION. (Which is a a Socialist/Marxist plan to take over Texas education.)

 

 

 

JOHN GRIFFING

with World Net Daily states the following in regard to Ms. Whiteker’s editorial.

Whiteker’s writeup hinges on a common logical fallacy:

“begging the question,” i.e. “assuming the premise one is trying to prove.”

Whiteker takes for granted the following assumptions, and provides no factual evidence in support of these assumptions:

-Critics of CSCOPE are trying to sell their own curriculum (slander/libel – she should be careful with this assertion).

-Critics of CSCOPE are basing their argument on two lessons, taken out of context.

-CSCOPE is needed because of new state standards, and older curriculum approaches were not adequate. (Says Whiteker. What about successful schools doing well on STAAR who do not use CSCOPE?)

-Private schools using CSCOPE (in part – KIPP does not use lesson plans) means that CSCOPE is a good product.

-Forcing CSCOPE to submit to state oversight will end with the state assuming “total control of all curriculum.” (The state has always had “total control” of textbook and instructional material OVERSIGHT – until 2011.)

-Critics have said that CSCOPE uses common core curriculum. (Critics–unless ignorant–have never said CSCOPE used common core, only that the federal DOE was interested in purchasing and that CSCOPE’s methodology and clear philosophical bent was comparable and indeed similar to common core.)

 

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