Tavis Smiley: Black People Are Not Better Off Under Obama and the President Ought to Be ‘Held Responsible’

Tavis Smiley isn't an Uncle Tom and nor is he an ass-kissing, black liberal who believes it's criminal to ever criticize Barack Obama. No, Tavis Smiley is a truth-teller who calls it as he sees it, regardless of political ideology or fear-mongering. And for that alone, he should everyone's respect:

As we reported this week, PBS radio host Tavis Smiley debated Fox’s Sean Hannity over the government shutdown. Another interesting nugget from that interview is when Smiley asserted that the lot of black Americans has not improved under this current presidency.

“Are black Americans better off five years into the Obama presidency?” Hannity bluntly asked the political radio host.

“Let me answer your question very forthrightly: No, they are not,” Smiley responded. “The data is going to indicate, sadly, that when the Obama administration is over, black people will have lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category.”

“On that regard,” he added, “the president ought to be held responsible.”

However, Smiley continued, “I respect the president. I will protect the president. And I will correct the president. He’s right on this government shutdown. Republicans are thwarting the rule of law with the Constitution. If they let this debt go into default, they’re trampling again on the Constitution.”

RELATED:  NAACP president: Black people worse off under Obama

Dr. Ben Carson Calls Obamacare ‘Worst Thing Since Slavery’

Mediaite.com:

Rush Limbaugh and George Will aren’t the only conservatives comparing the Affordable Care Act to slavery. At today’s Values Voter Summer, Dr. Ben Carson, fresh off signing a new contributor contract with Fox News, told the crowd that Obamacare is “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”

In fact, Carson said, “in a way, it is slavery, because it is making all of us subservient to the government.” He went to explain that the Affordable Care Act “was never about health care, it was about control.” For Carson it all comes down to a quote from Vladimir Lenin, who said, “Socialized medicine is the keystone to the establishment of a socialized state.” He dismissed the notion that he was “paranoid” for bringing up Lenin, saying, “if you know anything about history, how could you not bring it up?”

Carson became one of the most prominent voices against the Affordable Care Act when he denounced the law to President Obama’s face back in February. While his name was being thrown around by some as a possible Republican presidential candidate for 2016, he has so far decided to speak out against Obamacare as a member of the media instead. 

RELATED:  Video: Allentown mother forced to choose between ObamaCare and feeding family

Jason Collins Implies NBA Teams Not Signing Him Because He's Gay

You just knew this was going to happen once the NBA started there new season. Of course, a look at his career stats could tell you all the reasons you need to know about why he hasn't been signed. But expect the Godless, white, liberal elitists that dominate the national sports media to pursue this "issue", "fight" for Jason and pressure NBA teams to sign the "first gay NBA player" anyway:

Jason Collins, who made news when he became the first openly gay man playing a major American team sport, implied that the reason he has not been signed by any NBA teams might have to do with the fact that he announced he was gay.  

When asked whether he thought he hadn't been signed because of discrimination, he replied, "You don't want to speculate. I don't go there," but then added that he couldn't understand it because, "I feel there are players in the league right now that, quite frankly, I'm better than." 

And he knows he has those willing to do battle for him; he asserted, "I do have that feeling now that I'm not alone in this and I have that mindset, you know, of bring it on." 

The disinclination to sign Collins couldn't be the fact that his career statistics are abysmal, (3.6 points and 3.8 rebounds a game) or that the minimum salary for a player with 12 years experience is almost $1.4 million, and younger players could be paid at least one-third less, could it? 

No, it couldn't be that.  

Collins himself said teams shouldn't base their decisions on money, claiming, "In my mind it shouldn't be about that. N.B.A. is for the best players, not for the most affordable players. There isn't a professional athlete that doesn't want to play 12, 13 years. What I did when I was younger was look up to the guys like Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning who played over a decade. What did they do to last that long? A lot of it is keeping your body in shape, keeping your mind sharp, staying hungry. You should always want guys around like that to set that example, in my mind."  

Richard Lapchick, a human-rights activist and sports industry watchdog, pontificated after Collins's announcement that he was gay, "I do think it's important for him to be in the league as a visible symbol. If he makes this courageous stand but then disappears from the locker room, it would not do it justice." But now Lapchick says, "In all my work on hiring practices, I always argue to bring a diverse pool into the interview process and then hire the best person. I am rooting hard for Jason to play this year, but I want him to make it on his own, for his sake and for the sake of the issue." Hudson Taylor, the executive director of Athlete Ally, who advocates for gay athletes, asserted, "The decision to sign him rests with individual team owners. One of them has to step up." 

RELATED: Jason Collins, Openly Gay and Still Unsigned, Waits and Wonders

Atheist Scientists Given Nobel Prize To Deny God

RenewAmerica.com:

Another strange Nobel Prize has just been awarded, this time to two scientists whose goal it was and is, to deny God.

The atheists have become so desperate to disprove God that their urgency to do so suggests the panic that only the devil himself would express during these last days.

We are approaching the finish line of time – limited time for the enemy to take as many away from God as possible. And there seems to be no end to the means being exercised to accomplish Satan's goals in his final skirmish against God.

A "Nobel Prize" for physics was given to atheist scientists, Peter Higgs of Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium yesterday, Tuesday 10/8/13, for "explaining" how matter formed after the Big Bang.

The results, the scientists saith, provided the fundamental building blocks of the universe that were merged together, gaining mass and forming everything we see around us today. That would include soil, grass, trees, flowers, animals, fish and humans with their intricate DNA not to mention the sun, moon and planets orbiting each other continually with perfect timing in endless space.

The Associated Press stated that the physicists offered "PROOF" that their theory was valid. That appears to be a careless usage of words, to put it mildly.

And how did this :"proof" surface? First of all, the scientists involved managed to raise and spend $10 billion dollars to build a "Particle Collider." which would be the world's biggest atom smasher, built in a 17 mile tunnel under the Swiss-French border. That is 10 BILLION dollars, with a B.

The goal was to find a subatomic particle that would be called, The Higgs Boson, but became better known as, The God Particle, from whence everything sprung.

This, of course would mean that it was all spontaneous combustion, there was no higher intelligence involved....yep...God does not exist, and this settles it.
Ten Billion Dollars spent in an effort to disprove the existence of God. Think how far that amount of money would go to improve education, communities, cities, libraries, museums, and the lives of so many.

But the AP says they found "proof." After so much time – pounding, boiling, smashing and cooking elements, one is bound to come up with a possible simile of the thing they are looking for, but it is only that..not "proof."

Yet, the Marxist press is all over that so-called discovery, to deceive people in an effort to persuade them to abandon their religious beliefs and faith. It is an old story.

Then again, billions of dollars more has been spent on space exploration. Some of that which is used for commercial projects including satellites for communications is understandable. However, questions arise over trips to Mars, for one, where they seem determined to find water, mud that might indicate that the planet once had water which, of course, would mean that human life had once existed and was sustained there. What they are trying to prove is a huge stretch.

RELATED: Atheists Threaten Lawsuit over Police-Church Collaboration

Conservative Actor James Woods on Left’s Hollywood Blacklist: ‘I Don’t Expect to Work Again’

In an industry dominated by the white, morally-bankrupt, liberal, elite, conservatives actors know that they are risking their livelihoods when speaking out against liberal terrorism:

Actor James Woods, one of the few outspoken, persistent critics of the Obama Administration in Hollywood realizes that he’s jeopardizing his career given the suffocating left-wing political correctness that so dominates the entertainment industry.

After calling out President Obama for his rank hypocrisy in closing down the World War II Memorial but allowing a protest of illegal aliens to occur at the “closed” National Mall, Woods acknowledged he was jeopardizing his future by condemning Obama as a “true abomination.”

“I don’t expect to work again,” Woods said on Twitter after being asked if he was putting his career at risk. “I think Barack Obama is a threat to the integrity and future of the Republic. My country first.” 

This is not the first time that Woods has criticized Obama. This past July, he condemned the president for increasing racial resentment and not encouraging work as the only path from poverty.

“ALL youth of every heritage in this country would benefit from jobs and manageable student loans, NOT a bloated Welfare State,” he said on Twitter after Obama claimed that he had witnessed people lock their doors when he approached them simply because he was a black man.

“The only reason people lock their car doors when Obama walks by is they are afraid he'll tax them to death...” he continued.

Kudos to Woods for being brave enough to speak up about his views despite the very real risk that he’s ended up on the left’s blacklist.

RELATED: ‘Saturday Night Live’ Uses Miley Cyrus Take-Off to Mock Bachmann, Boehner

"Preachers of L.A." Trailer

There's a show coming this fall to Oxygen that is already sparking controversy. The reality program "Preachers of L.A." will follow the lavish lives and booming careers of six mega pastors — Clarence McClendon, Deitrick Haddon (one of the show's producers), Jay Haizlip, Noel Jones, Wayne Chaney and Ron Gibson.

A description on Oxygen's website boasts: "Known for their fiery sermons, community outreach and passionate followings, pastors have become iconic, beloved, and sometimes polarizing figures in modern culture. Yet, few people have access to these larger-than-life men away from the pulpit. Until now."

As the official trailer reveals, the docuseries shows these men of faith "inside and outside of the church" as they shop, golf, vacation. Bishop Clarence McClendon said, "The Bible says that I wish above all things that you will prosper and be in health, even as your soul will prosper--I believe that," expressing a view that all of the preachers seem to hold in common. And when it comes to the men's lifestyles there's no shortage of controversy.

"P. Diddy, Jay-Z — they're not the only ones who should be driving Ferraris and living in large houses," said Bishop Gibson, who is himself the product of a past characterized by struggle and redemption. The show's blog gives a brief overview of Gibson's background as a former gang member, and explains how his life was transformed by the Christian message:

"Although he was raised by a Christian mother in the Church, Ron succumbed to the pressure of the streets and became a Compton Crip by the age of sixteen. This led to a life of crime and drug addiction, until Christ changed his life. He started Life Church Of God In Christ with nine members, which has now grown to a congregation of approximately 4,000 members."

Cristy Nicole Deweese, Former Playboy Coed of the Month, Now Teaches High School

NYDailyNews.com:

A Texas high school Spanish teacher is under fire after it emerged she once posed naked for Playboy.

Cristy Nicole Deweese, 21, has become the talk of Townview Magnet High School in Dallas after students found out she'd stripped off for the popular magazine.

As an 18-year-old, she starred as "Coed of the Month" in February 2011 and went full-frontal for her fans.

She also donned winter bunny gear and lingerie — and simulated lesbian sex with another model.

"My butt looks great in jeans, panties, or nothing," she told the magazine.

"My legs are long. But my favorite thing about my body is my breasts. They're small, but real, nicely shaped, and I don't have to worry about back pain, bras, men staring or anything."

All the shots are still online to see — meaning her teen male students have most likely been checking out what their señora used to get up to.

"Are her male 16- and 17-year-old students looking at her without picturing her nude?" asked one parent to the Dallas Morning News.

"For the female students, is this someone they can respect as an educator, someone that they can look up to?" questioned another.

The Dallas school district has not commented on the saucy snaps, taken when she was not employed as a teacher, saying it is a "personnel matter."

RELATED: Couples to have sex in front of studio audience

Pennsylvania Fights To Prohibit 'Gay' Marriage

WashingtonTimes.com:

In a bellwether case for states trying to preserve gay-marriage bans in a fast-shifting legal landscape, Pennsylvania officials are arguing that the Supreme Court’s decision this summer and the Obama administration’s approach should not undercut the state’s ability to enforce its own marriage laws.

State officials said in a legal brief filed this week that Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, and the state’s health secretary should be dropped as defendants in a federal case filed in July by nearly two dozen state residents over the gay-marriage ban, arguing that state officials are immune to being sued in federal court without their consent.

Pennsylvania is one of 37 states where gay marriage remains illegal, but it has been the target of multiple legal challenges to its statute as the only state in the Northeast that doesn’t allow either gay marriage or same-sex civil unions. Gay-marriage activists have filed federal lawsuits in states including Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, believing federal judges would be more sympathetic to gay marriage and more willing to overturn state prohibitions.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in June on gay marriage did not find a constitutional right to same-sex nuptials and did not mandate that individual states must allow or recognize same-sex marriages, attorney William H. Lamb argued on behalf of Mr. Corbett and Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Michael Wolf. Mr. Lamb asked that all claims against Mr. Corbett and Mr. Wolf be dismissed.

All parties in the lawsuit, known as Whitewood v. Corbett, are scheduled to meet Wednesday with U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III to discuss the case.

Pennsylvania is one of 19 states where gay-rights activists are suing to legalize same-sex marriage. Battles are underway in states with voter-passed constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage, such as Arkansas and Virginia, as well as states that outlaw gay marriage only by statute, such as Illinois and West Virginia.

Many lawsuits were filed this summer after the Supreme Court struck down the section of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that said only marriages of one man and one woman could be recognized by the federal government.

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Corbett and Mr. Wolf are responding to a lawsuit filed by 10 gay couples, two children and a lesbian widow who are seeking to overturn Pennsylvania’s state amendment in favor of traditional marriage, also enacted in 1996.

RELATED: Chris Christie Appeals Gay Marriage Ruling To Higher Court

ACLU Warns College Football Players Not To Pray Before Games

Only in Barack Obama's anti-God America:

The American Civil Liberties Union instructed Tennessee superintendents to end prayer before public high school football games in order to protect “religious freedom for all your students, including your athletes, and their families who attend the games.” 

More than 130 administrators received a letter from Tennessee ACLU Executive Director Hedy M. Weinberg chiding them for sponsoring prayer at the football games:

“As you know, the First Amendment prohibits government policies and practices“respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Both the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause operate to protect the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of all Americans. It is well settled that school faculty, coaches, administrators or invited clergy may not lead students in prayer or conduct a prayer during a school event.”

The ACLU claimed the state may neither promote nor prohibit religious exercise. Instead, it must remain neutral. 

However, the government’s three-pronged Establishment Clause test, created in Lemon v. Kurtzman, seems more anti-religious than neutral. 

As stated in Lee v. Weisman, to pass the test practices must:

“(1) reflect a clearly secular purpose; (2) have a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion; and (3) avoid excessive government entanglement with religion.”

This four-decade-old approval system takes religion completely out of the public square.
Not to worry though, ACLU’s Weinberg is all about preserving freedom:

“Like you, we want to preserve the sanctity of everyone’s religious freedom, including their ability to choose whether and when to pray. Like you, we do not want to see taxpayers, students and parents in your school district ostracized and excluded if they do not wish to participate in unconstitutional, state-endorsed prayer at athletic events. 

Please reproduce and share this letter with your schools’ principals. I welcome any questions or comments you may have and can be reached at 615-320-7142.”

Anyone care to give Weinberg a call? 

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Even Liberal Journalist Wolf Blitzer Thinks ObamaCare Should Be Delayed For A Year

When noted Obamabots in the mainstream media start to go off the reservation you know you're in trouble:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said at the end of a Situation Room segment on Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration should consider a one-year delay on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in order to get the health care exchange websites functioning properly.

“A week into it, still a lot of glitches,” CNN correspondent Brian Todd reported to Blitzer. “People not able to create accounts, just to get information to possibly enroll, much less not being able to enroll in the plan.”

“We’re also hearing now that the administration was warned about these potential problems months in advance,” Todd continued. “We spoke to a health care consultant who has clients who are insurers. He says his insurers, who dealt with the administration in the months ahead of time, had contentious meetings with people at [Health and Human Services] and other health care officials who were in charge of this, warning them, ‘This isn’t working, it’s not going to be smooth, don’t do it.’ He says those warnings were ignored, they went full speed ahead, and said we’ll work these problems out. There’s been a bit of pushback from the White House, we’ll hope to get more later from them.” 

“If they had three years to get this ready—if they weren’t fully ready, they should accept the advice that a lot of Republicans are giving them, delay it another year, get it ready, and make sure it works,” Blitzer said. “There are government health care-related websites that work great. Socialsecurity.gov, a whole bunch of others. They know how to do it. But if they didn’t get it ready on time, then maybe fix the problem, make sure people don’t have to worry about it.” 

RELATED:  How Obamacare's Exchanges Turned Into A 'Third World Experience'

Ratchet Queen Miley Cyrus Says She Didn't Know 40-Year-Olds Could Still Have Sex

EOnline.com:

Matt Lauer didn't go easy on Miley Cyrus when she appeared and performed during Today on Monday, Oct. 7. The co-anchor asked the pop star about everything from her risqué photo shoot with Terry Richardson to her war of words with Sinéad O'Connor—and Cyrus maintained her composure throughout the interview.

The TV journalist began by asking Cyrus about the constant controversy surrounding her name. "Are you surprised by the attention you're getting right now?" Lauer asked.

"Not really," the singer shrugged. "I mean, it's kind of what I want. I'm an artist, so I'm hoping that I get a little attention or my record sales might be a little sketch."

Lauer then asked Cyrus if her now-infamous MTV Video Music Awards performance was intentionally meant to shock viewers. "I don't ever really plan to offend people, but sometimes that just happens because I think people, they're not open to what they don't understand," the performer said. "But that's why when I'm singing for my fans, because they're all really young so they understand what I'm doing."

"Did it go exactly as you planned?" Lauer asked.

"It went exactly as I planned," Cyrus, 20, answered. "I mean, it's a month later and we're still talking about it, so it definitely went as planned."

"We talked about the performance, and obviously a lot of it was very provocative. I'm never going to go to a sporting game and look at a foam finger the same way...Add to that some of the photos I've seen of your recently on the internet. You had the naked shot on the video for 'Wrecking Ball.' It's very clear that you are...attempting to navigate tricky territory right now," Lauer said. "A lot of people have tried this in the past between child star and adult performer. Is it harder than you thought it would be?"

A confident Cyrus replied, "Nah, because this is just, like, who I am. I think it's only hard if you're trying to be something you're not. Being who you are is really easy if you're really true to that."

Lauer, 55, continued to grill the former Hannah Montana star, asking, "Is this a phase? Is the sexual side of you that we're seeing a lot of right now something that's going to be around for a while and then you move onto something else?"

Liam Hemsworth's ex-fiancée seized the opportunity to make a joke at Lauer's expense. "I heard when you turn 40, things start to go a little less sexual," she began.

"Don't say that," Lauer said with a smile.

"Probably around that time, I heard that's when people don't have sex anymore," Cyrus continued. "I guess maybe around then." Lauer then asked, "Do you know how old I am?"

Grinning from ear to ear, Cyrus responded, "I'm gonna guess 40." Lauer then asked Cyrus if she would do anything differently given the opportunity. "You can't change anything about it. I do a lot of things, but I can't change the past," she explained. "If I can't control it, I don't really think about it. I just live my life and I don't really think about anything."

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Mitt Romney Hits President Obama on Shutdown, Talks 2012 Mistakes on Hannity

RELATED: Senate to vote on clean debt-ceiling increase

Arkansas 6th Graders Asked To Alter Bill of Rights

Rule No. 1 in the book of liberal indoctrination: get em' while they're young, open and incredibly naive:

Is the Bill of Rights hopelessly out of date? Are we ready to scrap the amendments and start writing new ones? Those are the questions that faced a sixth-grader in Bryant, Arkansas, and her mother is none too happy about it.

“I can see a class using critical thinking skills to modernize the words, as to help them better understand the Amendments,” said Lela Spears, whose child brought home the homework assignment. “Giving an assignment to remove two then add two with little explanation as to why is upsetting.”

The assignment asked sixth-grade students to imagine that they were part of a “National Revised Bill of Rights Task Force.” The job of this hypothetical NRBRTS was to “ensure that our personal civil liberties and the pursuit of happiness remains guarded in the 21st century.”

In order to accomplish that lofty goal, kids were assigned to “prune” two of the 10 amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights and then add two new ones that they make up. Students were also instructed to “prioritize” and “revise” the existing amendments.
Among other rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution guarantee freedom of speech and religion, protection against unreasonable searches, the right to a public jury trial and the right not to incriminate oneself.

While Bryant schools use the controversial “Common Core” curriculum, it is unclear whether the assignment is part of Common Core. For that matter, according to the web site The Blaze, the school district has not confirmed that the Bill of Rights exercise was an actual assignment.

“After she brought it home and explained her assignment to me, it made me question exactly what she was being taught,” Spears said, adding that her daughter had received no other education in the Constitution or civics at all.

“She didn’t even understand what the Amendments meant. How can she make an informed decision when she doesn’t understand what she is ‘throwing out’?” Spears said in an interview with the Digital Journal.

Spears’ daughter is not alone. In a 2011 Newsweek survey, 44 percent of the 1,000 people asked could not say what the Bill of Rights was.

RELATED:  Ark. School District Responds to Controversial Bill of Rights Assignment and Explains How It Lines Up With Common Core Standards

Peter King’s Lonely Fight vs. ‘Ted Cruz Wing’

Politico.com:

If Peter King’s brand of Republicanism seems to be on the wane these days, the Long Island congressman isn’t letting it go quietly.

King, 69, has long been one of the Hill’s most quotable and irascible troublemakers, a frequent presence on cable television with an apparently boundless capacity for outrage. He has fumed over topics as serious as Hurricane Sandy relief and aid for Sept. 11 responders, and as comparatively trivial as the White House party crashers and the death of Michael Jackson (whom he called a “lowlife” and a “pervert.”) King broke with Newt Gingrich over the government shutdowns of the mid-1990s and earned the gratitude of the Clinton clan when he rebuked his own party for impeaching a president for sexual indiscretions.

So while it’s not a surprise that King would be one of the Republican Party’s most prominent internal critics these days, even the congressman’s friends say there’s a new intensity and urgency to the lawmaker’s indignation.

King has thundered away in recent months against what he calls the “Ted Cruz wing” of the Republican Party, criticizing the GOP’s libertarian drift on issues such as domestic surveillance and assailing what he views as the utter pointlessness of the House’s effort to defund Obamacare at the cost of a government shutdown. He has floated the idea of a 2016 presidential campaign largely out of opposition to the tea party crowd.

His frustration, friends say, reflects a deepening conviction that Republicans have lost touch with the working-class, middle-of-the-road voters who sent King to Congress in the first place, and who used to make Republican candidates for the Senate and the presidency competitive in downstate New York.

For a veteran pol like King, the plain reality is, there has never been a lonelier time on the Hill to be a blue-collar Republican from Nassau County. When he tried to trigger a revolt against the shutdown this week, only one moderate-leaning Republican – Pennsylvania’s Charlie Dent – joined the effort.

Speaking to POLITICO in his Capitol Hill office, King rejected the notion that he, rather than the great majority of his colleagues who have supported the shutdown, is out of step with the national Republican electorate.

“I don’t consider these guys conservatives. I think the party is going in an isolationist trend. It’s appealing to the lowest common denominator in many ways. And this whole threat of defunding the government, to me, is not conservative at all,” said King, who added later: “Maybe we do live in different worlds. These guys from the Ted Cruz wing live in their own echo chamber.”

The vast cultural gulf that separates King from many of his Republican colleagues is evident from a quick glance around the walls of his office. In a heavily Southern-inflected GOP conference, King is an Irish policeman’s son; he is surely the only member with photos of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca on his wall, and a piece of the destroyed Secret Service office at 7 World Trade Center on his desk.

Yet King insists he is not the outlier in the Republican-held House. On the contrary, he argues, his district has a mix of voters that more closely approximates a winning national electorate than those of most of his GOP colleagues.

“It basically would be right-of-center Republicans and Reagan Democrats, people who belong to building trade unions, cops, firefighters, middle-class families who are fighting to get ahead, but also realize that life isn’t that simple,” King said. “There’s a big building trade constituency in Ohio and Pennsylvania, for instance. I think a blue-collar conservative could carry Pennsylvania for president, could carry Ohio, for instance, but we alienate those groups.”

RELATED: Megyn Kelly Kicks Off in Primetime with Cruz: ‘What’s It Like To Be The Most Hated Man in America?’

Liberal Media Continues To Cover Up Violence Against Teachers

Townhall.com:

Baltimore teacher Jeff Slattery struggles with fear every day. He literally has to force himself out the door as he heads to his classroom. In December 2010 at Baltimore Community High School Slattery stopped a student without a hall pass. The student got physical. Slattery let him go.

"He walked down the hallway, I turned around and went back to my classroom and he came up from behind me and once I was on the ground, he's basically standing on top of me. He struck me multiple times. When my jaw broke, I went unconscious and I don't remember anything after that." The Social Studies teacher later learned it took four teachers to pull the student off him. Slattery’s broken jaw was wired shut for weeks.[i] Slattery's assault by a student was just one of seven hundred that school year in Baltimore City Public Schools where its own data shows an average of four school personnel were assaulted each day in 2010. That average has held true through the past five school years with a total of nearly four thousand assaults by students on personnel -- with increases in the last two years.[ii] Baltimore is one of the relatively few systems that have regular reports on such incidents.
 
Teachers across the country are experiencing alarmingly high rates of student violence and harassment while at school. Yet, there are surprisingly few studies of the numbers and frequency of these incidents. The reporting requirements at the school, local, state and national level are either non-existent or routinely ignored. The anemic official response to the increasing pattern of violence puts teachers in position of being victimized by the system rather than protected by it. In fact, the teachers’ union response to the Slattery attack in Baltimore was simply to encourage teachers to voluntarily fill out a form if they get attacked.

One of the few research articles conducted on this important topic was published earlier this year in the American Psychological Association's journal, American Psychologist.[iii] The APA research found only 14 published studies that have bothered to examine violence directed at teachers in schools. The APA study found that 80 percent of the teachers they surveyed reported being victimized at school at least once in the then-current or prior year.

Of those, 94 percent said they had been victimized by students – including being physically attacked, harassed, or victims of theft or property damage at school. Governors should lead the charge to demand more comprehensive and accurate reporting of this threat to teachers as well as prompt punishment for offenders in order to provide teachers and their students with a safe working environment.

The teachers’ unions should be demanding action, yet there is mostly silence from those who loudly claim to represent the interests of teachers who are being assaulted daily in American classrooms. Some reporting requirements are already in place but are obviously ineffective. School violence directed at teachers is grossly underreported, with “official” national records claiming only 7% of teachers have been subjected to threats or violence.[iv]

Other reports indicate a number much higher -- in the 15-25% range. Even at 7% there would be about aquarter million teachers subjected to threats and violence each year! Additionally, there is clearly an effort to hide the problem, whether it is the direct or indirect efforts of principals to discourage teachers from leaving a paper trail, the threat of reprisal that intimidates teachers into silence, or bureaucrats who reduce the number of reported incidents and then claim the threats and violence are receding simply because there is a lack of punishment. For example, in 2012 the Bibb County, GA school system dramatically reduced its use of evidentiary hearings that lead to expulsions, suspensions and other tough punishments for students with repeated discipline problems. One result is that more of these students remained in the classroom, often creating difficulties for teachers and other students.[v]

Bibb County claimed that the number of “evidentiary hearings” for student misconduct had dropped from 772 during the 2010-11 school year to just 116 during the 2011-12 school year and showed “progress” in protecting teachers. Expulsions dropped from 223 to 28, and permanent expulsion and corporal punishment were eliminated! So things are better in Bibb County, right? Not according to teachers and administrators who say they have been discouraged from -- or even punished -- for sending students to the office or requesting disciplinary hearings. They are not just fearful of their students; they also fear retaliation from principals and school officials for speaking up! Safe Havens International, a consulting firm hired by Bibb County to evaluate school safety, determined there was a “pervasive” problem of underreporting the violence and threats targeted at teachers.[vi]

The numbers of reported incidents in Bibb County HAVE gone down.[vii] But is it because the schools are safer for teachers or because the actual level of violence is being covered up and underreported? The same pattern is seen all across the country…violence is up but the “official” reports tell another story. Children cannot learn in an environment of fear. When the authority figures in our schools are abused and threatened with impunity, kids do not feel protected and lose their focus and their respect for the system that cannot even protect the adults. It is past time for our nation’s Governors to ensure that our schools are safe environments for learning, which means addressing this largely hidden crisis in our schools. Covering up the problem won’t fix it.

RELATED:  Student on teacher assaults on rise

Politiks As Usual: In The News 10/7/13

Chemical Weapons Experts In Syria Begin Dismantling Assad's Stockpile

Sarah Palin, Football & Lonegan Equals Tea Party Victory!

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3 Reasons Obamacare Hurts Low-Income College Students

Townhall.com:

Alejandra makes Obamacare sound great. Yet most of the liberal pundits and legislators speaking for socioeconomically disadvantaged kids in school have no idea what it’s like to be one. As a recent grad from that demographic, I have three reasons Obamacare hurts low-income college students: 

1. The Individual Mandate is Not Compatible with Financial Aid

Financial aid is based on the difference between an individual’s estimated family contribution (EFC) and cost of attendance (COA). However, the cost of health insurance is rarely considered part of COA. This means kids who have a very low EFC and can barely afford school have to pay insurance premiums thanks to the individual mandate.
Those who say the fee will not apply to struggling students are the most out-of-touch. Not only are scholarship grants over the COA considered taxable income, but the poorest often work while in school and make enough money to be slammed by the fee. The individual mandate was already implemented years ago at most public and private universities – it has already done damage to the most financially needy students.

2. Keeping Parents’ Plans Until Age 26 Hurts the Poor

Most Supporters claim Obamacare will increase competition among insurance companies to provide low-cost plans to the poor who were suffering before—a true bleeding-heart story. Yet the provision that children are covered by their parents’ plan until age 26 hurts the poor the most.
The worst off parents don’t have health insurance and will likely opt to pay the $95 fee. As a result, the rich kids will relax and have several years out of college to find a job with benefits while the poor kids (whom Obamacare claims to help the most) will be forced to sign up for whatever plans are left over before the higher $695 fee hits.

3. The Economic Fallout Makes College Less Valuable

For most wealthy families, college is a given. Poor families, however, often send their children to college with great sacrifice – even if the student earns a full ride there are difficulties: perhaps the student was expected to work in the family business, look after many siblings, or add to the household income. This is especially true for first-generation students. It is difficult, but it is also a time-honored part of the American Dream.
The American Dream is at stake. If Obamacare continues to cause employers to avoid hiring the 50th worker and cut back on employment hours, then the prospects for college graduates will only go from bleak to worse. A low-income student may weigh the odds and simply decide it’s not worth it anymore. 

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