POLITICAL UPDATE--Environmentalism

This update focuses on environmentalism. Environmentalists continue to promote socialism and battle against human prosperity and well-being. Their policies sometimes damage the environment as well. They promote a number of myths to advance their cause.

Deroy Murdock shows that many environmentalists support genocide against humanity.
Lew Rockwell explains how a government ban of DDT led to millions of deaths.
Thomas Sowell explains one way environmentalism hurts the poor.
Alan Caraba exposes the myth of global warming and how it hurts America.
WorldNetDaily destroys the myth that oil is a "fossil fuel" that we are running out of.
Lew Rockwell debunks environmentalism and explains why he opposes the environment.

"It's as if the socialists discovered that their plan created poverty, and so decided to change their names to environmentalists and make poverty their goal."
--Lew Rockwell

Competitive Legislative Seats

MIRS recently ranked what it believes to be the most competitive Michigan Senate and Legislature seats. The articles are available on Saul Anuzius' blog.

The most competitive Senate races are available here. (Scroll down about 40%.)

The most competitive House races are available here. (Scroll about half way down.)

The most competitive Senate seat is Kalamazoo's own Tom George:

1. Sen. Tom GEORGE (R-Texas Twp.) v. Rep. Alexander LIPSEY (D-Kalamazoo), 20th District *6

The panic button is being pushed in Republican land. The GOP is realizing George wasn't dialed into the "incumbency protection plan" as much as he should have been and the Democrats realize George's numbers are the weakest among sitting Republican Senators. The impression in Lansing is that the anesthesiologist has been practicing too much medicine and too little politics. It's easy to fall asleep when your incumbent rakes up 56 percent of the vote in 2002.

Now that Lipsey's knees have healed up, he's walking all over the place with his likeable father. Democrats believe Lipsey will be able to bring out the base vote in the urban center, something 2002 Democratic candidate Ed LaFORGE was unable to do. The anti-Republican Jon STRYKER-funded Coalition for Progress group is paying for George attack ads.

In the meantime, this Kalamazoo County district is changing. Western Michigan University is growing. The county went 51 percent for Democratic presidential nominee John KERRY in 2004 and Lipsey's numbers in Kalamazoo are huge.

Meanwhile, this made the races to watch:

69th District, Mark MEADOWS (D) v. Johnny KNOWLES (R) *NR

This seat is trending Democratic in a hard, fast way and it's hard to see Meadows blowing this, but you can't drive through East Lansing without seeing at least three Knowles signs. Johnny Knowles is, seriously, everywhere.

More MCRI nonsense

The western herald dipped into the MCRI controversy, and not surprisingly, provided some of the worst coverage so far.

This editorial is a calumny of misinformation. Here's my response:

Your editorial reveals significant ignorance about the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

First, Proposition 209 was a California ballot initiative that passed a decade ago. The MCRI is denoted as Proposition 2.

Second, the MCRI only bans racial and sexual discrimination in government hiring, contracting, and college admissions. The private sector would not be affected at all. Private sector hiring and bank loans would not change.

Third, The MCRI would not ban "affirmative action." It would ban racial and sexual discrimination. Programs that seek greater recruitment of minorities and judge all applicants by the same standards would be unaffected.

Racial discrimination is wrong, and the MCRI will stop the government from doing it.

This news story on the MCRI couldn't find any supporters to talk to.

This opinion column on foreign students and "offensive" speech sparked many interesting comments, including what studying abroad in France was like.

You can leave your own comments on the Herald site.

Presidential Search Panel

Western has appointed a panel to search for the next President of Western. The Gazette reports:

The 12-member search team that will help find Western Michigan University's next president has been assembled.

The committee of faculty members, students, administrators, community members and two WMU trustees will work with a professional search consultant, then present a short list of candidates to the board of trustees, which will choose the president.

The panel will also include a WMU student.

Andrew Hooley, a junior at WMU selected to serve on the committee, is one of two students on the committee; the other is a graduate student.

"Our next leader has to be responsive to the students,'' said Hooley, who is vice president of the Western Student Association, which represents some 19,000 undergraduate students.

"I'd really like to see someone who's willing to be dedicated and has a passion for keeping the students at the university,'' he said.

Liberals versus mathematics

Phyllis Schlafly has an excellent column on what liberals have done to mathematics education. Read it all. Thankfully, after years of miseducation, things are finally starting to head back in the right direction.

It took parents 17 years to overturn the tragic 1989 curriculum mistake made by so-called education experts who demanded that schools abandon traditional mathematics in favor of unproven approaches. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics finally reversed course on Sept. 12 and admitted that elementary schools really should teach arithmetic, after all.

The new report called "Curriculum Focal Points for Pre-kindergarten Through Grade 8 Mathematics" is a back-to-basics victory that rejects the type of math curricula that parents had derided as "fuzzy math" or "rain forest math." Experts preferred such hoity-toity titles as "New New Math," "Connected Math," "Chicago Math," "Core-Plus Math," "Whole Math," "Interactive Math" or "Integrated Math."

Whatever the title, these curricula imbedded the notion that estimates are acceptable in lieu of accurate answers to math problems so long as students feel good about what they are doing and can think up a reason for doing it. Fuzzy curricula were big on discussion, coloring, playing games, and early use of calculators.

The 1989 report, which gives the word "standards" a bad name, flatly opposed drilling students in basic math facts, taught that memorization of math facts was bad, and failed to systematically build from one math concept to another. Children were encouraged to "discover" math on their own, construct their own math language, and flounder with their own approaches to solving problems.

This silliness is based on the false notion that children can develop a deeper understanding of mathematics when they invent their own methods for performing basic calculations.

Despite widespread parental opposition, in October 1999 Bill Clinton's Department of Education officially endorsed 10 new math courses, based on the 1989 "standards," for grades K-12, calling them "exemplary" or "promising." Local school districts were urged to adopt one of them, and were baited with federal money inducements.

One department-approved "exemplary" course, "MathLand," directed children to meet in small groups and invent their own ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide. It's too bad the kids weren't told that wiser adults have already discovered how to do all those basic computations rapidly and accurately.

It wasn't only parents who quickly sized up fuzzy math curricula as subtracting rather than adding to the skills of schoolchildren. On Nov. 18, 1999, more than 200 prestigious mathematicians and scholars, including four Nobel laureates and two winners of the Fields Medal, the highest math honor, published a full-page ad in the Washington Post criticizing the "exemplary" curricula.

But Clinton's Education Secretary Richard Riley refused to back away from the department's endorsements and the 1989 "standards" adopted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

With such vague parameters for courses in math, trendy instructors began advancing their political agenda by injecting ethnic studies into math textbooks. Some taught what Diane Ravitch calls "ethnomathematics," the far out notion that traditional math is too Western and therefore students should be taught in ways that relate to their ancestral culture.

The diversion of math into the teaching of political correctness was illustrated by the "anti-racist multicultural math" curriculum adopted by Newton, Mass. It's no wonder that test scores dropped after this "math" curriculum's top priority became "Respect for Human Differences."

Several points need to be made here.

First, it's interesting to note that every progressive education fad is an unmitigated disaster.

Second, if you ever doubt that there's anything good that liberals won't destroy, remember "ethnomathematics" and "rainforest math."

Third, this sort of thing can only happen in a socialist government monopoly. As Schlafly points out, parents hated this all along. If they could choose where their children went to school, they would choose schools that used the traditional approach to math. This would force the other schools to cancel "new new math." Thanks to our government monopoly, people's only choice was to pay thousands of dollars to send their children to private schools. Of course, now millions of parents are homeschooling, and the number continues to increase.

Fourth, there is a subtext to this story that even Schlafly doesn't pick up on. Remember, we are talking about two different approaches to learning mathematics. In the first, a teacher drills the children until they have memorized basic facts. In the second, the children discuss the subject amongst themselves and try to discover it without the teacher's help. The other thing you need to know is that teachers' unions have a significant amount of influence over what is taught in the classroom.

Think on this: which of the two approaches are they more likely to favor?

Ding! Time's up. Set down your pencils.

Of course, the union will favor the approach in which the teacher does less work. As union boss Al Shanker once said, "When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." This goes a long way to explain the popularity of "whole math."

Too conservative for the CRNC

Thanks to Save the GOP for this item. Read it all.

The College Republican National Committee wasn't amused. The organization fired her [Morgan Wilkins] on Friday.

The creation of the Facebook group was the final straw for the CRNC. The national committee put Wilkins on probation on Sept. 12 when she told The Michigan Daily that she wanted to plan recruiting events where participants would shoot BB guns at cardboard cutouts of Democratic leaders like John Kerry and try to catch someone posing as an illegal immigrant.

The suggestions prompted an outcry from both Republicans and Democrats, including the University chapters of the College Republicans and College Democrats. Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean also condemned Wilkins's ideas.

...

The CRNC responded by telling Wilkins to stay away from the University. Wilkins thought the University's College Republicans had caved to pressure from those who decried her ideas.

"The U of M College Republicans are a bunch of appeasers," she said. "They have this na've outlook on the world that we can work together with the Democrats and la la la things will happen. But working together with the Democrats doesn't mean hiding in some closet and not offending anybody. That's not what we do."

Scott disagreed, saying Wilkins's confrontational style has no place at the University.

"Our public statements about it are pretty clear. Those events undermined the goals of our group," he said. "Those events were not appropriate for our campus."

Some endorsements

An item from Saul Anuzius' blog:

Michigan Equality Endorses Granholm

Today, the Michigan Equality PAC, which is a group that focuses on ending discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, endorsed Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM, 38 other Democratic candidates and three Republicans.

The Michigan Equality PAC endorsed the following Republicans: Sam DURANTE, who is running for the 18th District House seat, Armando ROMERO, who is running for the 60th District House seat and Rep. Lorence WENKE (R-Richland), who is running for re-election in the 63rd House District.

George Will on the MCRI

George Will's latest column updates the status of the MCRI.

DETROIT -- A feisty 29-year-old white woman and a pugnacious 67-year-old black man are performing two services this autumn for Michigan and the nation. Their Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is promoting colorblind government. And they are provoking remnants of the civil rights movement, which now is just a defender of a racial spoils system, to demonstrate its decadence, even thuggishness.

In November, Michiganders will vote on this ballot initiative: ``A proposal to amend the state constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes." Almost identical measures were passed by referendums in California in 1996 and Washington state in 1998, in similar conditions to those here: They were opposed by both parties, all so-called civil rights organizations, most newspapers and many business leaders. What is different in Michigan is the involvement of a particularly nasty organization and an egregiously political judge.

At age 19, Jennifer Gratz, denied admission to the University of Michigan, fought the university all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It endorsed her argument that it was an unconstitutional denial of equal protection of the law for the university to add 20 points to the scores of black, Hispanic and Native American applicants. (The maximum score was 150; a perfect 1,600 SAT earned just 12 points.)

Ward Connerly is a California businessman and former member of the University of California Board of Regents. He propelled to victory the measures mandating colorblind government in California and Washington state.

With Gratz as its executive director, and Connerly lending hard-earned expertise, MCRI collected 508,000 signatures, more than ever gathered for a Michigan initiative. In response, some opponents of MCRI have adopted four tactics, none of which involve arguing the merits of racial preferences, and all of which attempt -- in the name of ``civil rights,'' of course -- to prevent Michiganders from being allowed to vote on MCRI. The tactics have included:

-- Pressuring signers of MCRI petitions to say they did not understand what they were signing. Some talk radio stations have broadcast the names of signers, and opponents of MCRI have gone to signers saying, ``Did you know you signed a petition against equal opportunity?" Two who recanted their signatures, saying they had signed without reading the measure, are federal judges.

-- Violently intimidating the state Board of Canvassers, which certifies that initiatives have qualified for the ballot. The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) disrupted the board's deliberations, shouting and overturning a table. Video of this can been seen at www.michigancivilrights.org.

-- Asking a court to rule that MCRI committed ``fraud" because many who signed the petition supposedly were confused -- the signers were, presumably, not competent to read and understand the initiative, the full text of which was printed at the top of each petition. A federal judge -- Arthur Tarnow, a Clinton appointee -- sadly said he could not rule that way because, although he thinks MCRI is a fraud, whites as well as blacks were confused about it, and even if all signatures gathered in majority black cities were invalidated, there still were enough signatures to qualify it for the ballot. So Tarnow contented himself with an extrajudicial smear of Gratz, charging that her ``deception" had confused all Michigan voters, regardless of race.

-- Michigan ballots are printed by counties, so BAMN says it is asking local officials to assert an extralegal ``moral authority" to leave MCRI off the ballot.

Because the plain language of MCRI is appealing, some opponents argue that MCRI would have terrible ``unintended consequences." It might, they say, eliminate single-sex public schools (Michigan has none; eight of 3,748 schools have a few voluntary single-sex classes) and breast-cancer screening, or might stop a Department of Natural Resources' program aimed at helping Michigan women become hunters (the initiative concerns only hiring, contracting and public schools).

Given the caliber of opposition arguments, it is no wonder a Detroit News poll published Sept. 15 shows MCRI with an 11-point lead. Gratz says that if her group is outspent ``only" five to one -- Connerly was outspent that heavily while winning in Washington state -- MCRI will become Michigan law.

Anti-MCRI demonstrators chant, ``They say Jim Crow, we say hell no." So, the rancid residue of what once was the civil rights movement equates Jim Crow -- the system of enforced legal inferiority for blacks -- with opposition to treating blacks as wards of government, in need of infantilizing preferences, forever. To such Orwellian thinking, Gratz and Connerly -- and soon, perhaps, Michigan -- say: Hell no.

POLITICAL UPDATE--North American Union

This update focuses on North American Union (NAU). Some elites are planning to integrate the US, Canada and Mexico through the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and a continental highway system. This plan threatens our national sovereignty.

Dennis Behreandt examines the resemblance of the SPP to the European Union.
Phyllis Schlafly summarizes the history of the North American Union.
Jerome Corsi debunks government myths about the Security and Prosperity Partnership.
WorldNetDaily provides more information on the status of the NAU.
Congressman Ron Paul condemns the SPP as a threat to American sovereignty.
Corsi explains how the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is connected.
Pat Buchanan reveals that NAFTA super-highways are being planned across America.
Corsi argues that Interstate-69 is another NAFTA super-highway.
Alan Caruba argues that the SPP is unconstitutional.

Barrett in the Herald

Thursday's Western Herald features an article profiling Tom Barrett's run for County Commission. The article is straightforward and unbiased. You can leave a comment on the Herald site, if you want.

Barrett served two years in the military right out of high school and four years in the Michigan National Guard. He was stationed in South Korea with the military for a year and a half, then he was deployed to Guantanamo Bay from 2003 to 2004 with the National Guard.

"It was an eye-opening experience," Barrett said of his service. "An experience that I am very proud of, but not one that I would like to see again."

The last message of his campaign is to encourage people, mainly students, to get out and vote, he said."

People have died to secure our right to vote," he said. "It's sad to have half, or less than half, vote. It's too great of a right to pass up and not be involved in."

Barrett is up against two other candidates for the position of Fourth District County Commissioner. The election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 7, and the voting for precincts four and five will be held at Arcadia Elementary School.

In the meantime, students can find Barrett all around campus and up and down the nearby neighborhoods in an effort promote his campaign and to encourage students to vote."

I'm working hard to get my name out and to get students involved," he said. "You can sit back and do nothing or you can participate and try to change something for the better."

For more information on Barrett's campaign trail, where or how to vote or any questions regarding the commission, contact Tom Barrett at: tom.barrett@wmich.edu or visit his Web site at: votetombarrett.com.

The day before, the Herald featured an article concerning campus politics. The article is not online; the Herald seems to be rather hit-or-miss in this regard.

They profile the College Republicans. The article is unbiased, but it has two errors. They misspell AJ's name, and misdate Pat Buchanan's speech (it was two years ago, not one).

The College Democrats have withered away to nothing, and are now inactive.

The College Greens have "moved their efforts exclusively into" Students Against Sweatshops, one of several affiliated groups that have existed for awhile. Their main goal is imposing a "living wage" on Western. Does this mean that they think that Western is a sweatshop? They refer specifically to CSM, a janitorial company Western contracts with.

But not to worry:

Because Western doesn't pay these employees directly, organizers say that getting CSM to raise their employees wages would not cost students more.

Do people really think this way? Sadly, they do.

Not to belabor the obvious, but where will the money come from to pay janitors more? Will it fall from the sky? If Western demands that CSM pay its employees more, they will raise the price that they charge to Western. That will cost students more.

The next thing you know, these people will want the government to run a coffee mug business.

Your stupidity shouldn't constitute an expense on my part

So I saw this story on Foxnews.com. In it, the CDC says that HIV testing should be as common as a cholesterol check. This is the most outrageous claim I've ever heard. Everyone eats food. Lots of foods have cholesterol. Therefore, a cholesterol check is makes sense. I do not partake in any actions that would cause me to have HIV. Therefore, an HIV test on me is just stupid.
Now for some people out there, it's proper for them to get tested for HIV regularly. But that's their fault. However, because of this CDC statement, it is more likely that doctors will start testing more people for this virus. But let me tell you have that effects people like me.
When I get a job, I'll be paying into a health insurance plan. Now if more and more people start getting tested for HIV, then that means more costs for doctors. That cost is passed on to the insurance company. The cost is then passed on to people who pay into it. That means I end up paying for it in part. And what happens if this gets covered under MediCare? All tax payers will start paying for it.
I'm sorry but this is one of those things were I have little sympathy for people who become a victim. There's a small few who have become infected by no fault of their own. But these cases are becoming fewer and fewer. But many today basically choose to become infected. For those who skipped health class, let me tell you how to avoid getting HIV. 1. Don't use medical needles that could have possibly been used by someone else. Hospitals already take care of it so unless you're experimenting with drugs, you're probably safe from this avenue of infection. 2. If you see someone else's blood, don't touch it. Just think red means stop. 3. (and this is the big one) DON'T SLEEP AROUND! It's rather simple. Keep your pants on unless you're with the person you've married. It's pretty simple.
It's kind of like those people who have an abortion because they slept with their boyfriend (or some random dude) and got pregnant. If you weren't ready to have a kid, you should have kept your pants on. Now the life you helped create has to die. You stupid moron.
I'm convinced the biggest problem we have in our culture is a lack of self control. If you sleep around, you could get HIV or get pregnant. If you're not willing to deal with those possibilities, you shouldn't sleep around. Same with smoking. Who in their right mind starts smoking when there's a big label on the side of the box saying "If you do this, you WILL get cancer"? We need to remember that one of the founding principles of our party is personal responsibility. People should take responsibility for their own actions.

Stop government gun grabs

The National Rifle Association is pushing legislation to stop the confiscation of guns during emergencies.

The Michigan legislature is taking up pro-gun state of emergency legislation.

On Tuesday, the Michigan House Government Operations Committee unanimously approved (7-0) legislation that prevents the government seizure of lawfully possessed firearms and ammunition in a declared state of emergency. House Bill 6363 and House Bill 6364, sponsored by Representative Scott Hummel (R-93), prevent Hurricane Katrina-like confiscations and amend the governor’s state of emergency powers accordingly. The bill will now go to the Michigan House for approval.

Please keep checking your e-mail and http://www.nraila.org/ for updates on HB 6363 and HB 6364.

Several other states have already passed similar legislation.

One of the most underreported stories of 2005 was the gun confiscation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A disaster that lead to the collapse of law and order was when decent citizens needed firearms most. But the government decided to steal the guns of law-abiding citizens. The New Orleans Police were responsible for this outrage, though it is not clear whether anyone from the federal government was involved. Since then, the NRA and other pro-gun groups have been trying to hold them to account.

Gun rights continue to advance in the Michigan legislature.

Ax the bus tax

The Kalamazoo County Taxpayers Association has come out in opposition to the proposed transportation tax increase.

The Kalamazoo County Taxpayers Association recently announced its opposition to the tax, questioning whether key services would be lost if it was rejected.

...

"When citizens see almost four out of every five bus seats empty, and realize that there are only about 1,500 Car-A-Van riders, and only 670 that live outside the city, they're going to scratch their heads at this proposed tax hike,'' said the group's president, Isaac Morehouse.

"A 1 percent cut in Metro (Transit's) budget could solve this 'problem,' yet they want a 25 percent budget increase? There's simply no justification for this new tax.''

The KCTA has plenty of good information on its website. In addition, they have even more information in a fact sheet on the subject. This tax hike richly deserves to go down to defeat.

Enrollment down

Enrollment has declined at Western once again. This time, it's down by 5.3% to 24,841. Still, the consensus seems to be that there will be a turnaround next year, thanks in part to the firing of Judy Bailey and the completion of construction on campus.

Haenicke said, "Everybody now has to say, 'How can I help you?' -- not 'What do you want?' It's taking hold much more quickly than I thought it would. There's lots more smiling faces. Right now, I think we are beginning to serve students very well.''

Beacon and others said the change in campus morale is palpable. Beacon refers to "a new sense of optimism.'' Rosana Alsaud, chairwoman of the Graduate Student Advisory Committee, says momentum has shifted in a positive direction.

"I think students are actually beginning to become excited again,'' said Amanda Grove, a WMU senior and president of the Western Student Association. "They think the university is on the right track, with the provost and president being gone. It doesn't make us look very stable, but I think we have the right interim people in there.''

Haenicke and Beacon predict enrollment will turn around by next fall.

"Next year will be entirely different,'' Haenicke said. "It's a given.''

I have to agree that the mood on campus has improved. I can't say that I'm sad about the decline in enrollment, though. When enrollment was around 29,000, parking was practically impossible. Sometimes you would have to park in a completely different part of campus or just keep driving around until someone left. Enrollment around 25,000 leaves more room for everyone.

Now there's a good idea

Here's a story I found interesting. Apparently pro-life groups are buying the buildings that house abortion clinics as a way to shut them down. I think it's a rather brilliant idea.

POLITICAL UPDATE--Immigration

This update focuses on immigration. Competing bills are stalemated in Congress for now, but America continues to suffer damage from illegal immigration. A new book by Pat Buchanan, State of Emergency, has garnered some attention.

Phyllis Schlafly explains the reasons for immigration betrayals.
Thomas Sowell destroys fraudulent arguments for immigration.
Senator Jeff Sessions explains what's wrong with the Pence-Hutchinson immigration plan.
Kris Kobach explains that the DREAM act would give in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
Tony Blankley and Phyllis Schlafly review Pat Buchanan's State of Emergency.
Pat Buchanan remembers Enoch Powell and Jean Raspail's warnings about immigration.
Buchanan warns that immigration will lead to the dissolution of America.
Mac Johnson argues that today's flood of immigration is unprecedented.
Lynn Woolley reveals that the Senate bill would cost America $126 million in ten years.
Congressman Ron Paul explains how to solve the immigration problem.

Constitution Day

Today is Constitution Day, the anniversary of the day in 1787 when the Founding Fathers signed the Constitution. Today, however, most people know next to nothing about the Constitution, as Walter Williams writes.

As Thomas Jefferson once said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never will be."

To learn the truth about the Constitution that you'll never hear in a political science class, read our sheet entitled "Facts about the Constitution."

English on the move

After months of inaction, the bill to make English the official language of Michigan is once again moving through Lansing. Back in May the State House passed State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk's bill by a vote of 73-32. Now, a State Senate committee has passed the bill. It is expected to be voted on soon in the full Senate. Hopefully, it will soon be on Governor Granholm's desk.

A Muslim in Congress?

Last Tuesday, Democrats nominated Muslim Keith Ellison for Congress in Minnesota's 5th district. Given that the Minneapolis-based district is heavily Democratic, Ellison is likely to be elected to Congress.

Ellison has a long history of involvement with Anti-semitism and ties to supporters of terrorism. From Human Events:

At a fundraiser two weeks ago that the campaign estimates raised approximately $15,000 to $20,000, one of two speakers besides Ellison was Nihad Awad, the founder and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

This wasn’t Awad’s first assist. A month earlier, he apparently delivered to the campaign “bundled” checks amounting to just over $10,000. (“Bundling” is the practice of one person soliciting multiple checks for a campaign.) The campaign denies the contributions were bundled, but seven checks from residents of Virginia, Awad’s home state, and Texas, where Awad has strong ties, were received by the campaign on July 22. One of the checks was for $2,000 from Awad himself, and on the next day, the campaign logged a contribution from CAIR’s director of government affairs, Corey Saylor.

Though it claims to be simply a civil rights group for Muslims, CAIR is at best agnostic on Islamic terror, and at worst, a cheerleader for it. Two of its officials have been convicted on terrorism charges, and as an organization, while CAIR forcefully attacks critics of radical Islam, it has yet to condemn by name any Islamic terror organization other than al Qaeda—which it denounced only reluctantly several months after 9/11.

CAIR’s former communications and civil rights coordinator was convicted in 2004 on terror-related charges of plotting to wage violent jihad against the U.S., and the founder of its Texas branch last year was convicted of terror-related charges.

So what's your arguement now?

Today I saw This story (the Fox News version is here. I had to point out this isn't just Fox News stuff for those leftists who hate Fox News) saying that the US has captured a key Al Qaeda member in Iraq. While this capture is great for the US and our war against these terrorists, as Glen Beck would put it, we need to look at the real story here.
The real story is that we caught a key member of Al Qaeda (the people the left say we should be focusing on instead of Iraq) in Iraq. This shows that the enemies who hit us on 9/11 and want to continue attacking us use Iraq as a location to retreat to. If we were not in Iraq, do you think we would have made this capture? If Bin laden was to hide in Iraq, do you really think Saddam would let us walk in and get him? This proves that Iraq is a key ground in this war with these terrorists.
But do you think the left will give any value to this? No. They will continue to argue that the war in Iraq is a distraction from the war on the terrorists. But we would have not made this bust if it wasn't for the war in Iraq.
I think the left look at this war all wrong. They think if we cut off the head of the dragon (bin Laden) then all will be right with the world. I wonder if they're more concerned with revenge than preventing another attack. But the terrorists are more like a starfish than a snake. We can't cut off part of it because it will grow back. We have to wipe it out in all forms and regardless of where it is.
The sad thing is that there are people in this country so brainwashed, they'll ignore this story and continue with the rhetoric that "Bush lied, people died," or "Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror." I think we all need to point this out to them. We can't let this story slide under the rug. So for all my conservative friends, I want you to take note of this story and be sure to point this out to anyone on the left who says Iraq has no value to the war with the terrorists.

Remembering and reflecting

So we have recently observed the 5th anniversary of 9-11. As we reflect, I think we need to look at the focus of our country. Take President Bush's recent speech commemorating the event. It seems that much of the left can only cry "foul!" about it all.
And it's really sad. They say he's using the moment as a political move. Leave it to people who don't care about what happened to us on that day to do such a thing.
The left complains that Bush never provided details on how he plans to go after the terrorists in his speech. I consider that a good thing. We don't need the terrorists knowing how we plan to take them down. Even more, we don't need the left knowing what we're doing so they can interfere.
The fact of the matter is we were attacked. Thousands on innocent civilians were murdered. They want to do the same again.
We need to be tapping phone conversations going in and out of this country. Customs has a right to search packages, letters, and whatnot going in and out of this country, how do phone calls differ?
How can we be complaining about the conditions at Gitmo? The people there live better than some Americans! Air Conditions, meals daily, that would be the good life for a lot of people out on our own street.
The fact of the matter is the terrorists have not lost their resolve. I hope that most of you reading this here haven't lost any of your resolve to go after these guys.

First Meeting

The first meeting of the school year for the WMU College Republicans is today at 9 PM in the Brown and Gold Room of the Bernhard Center. We will kick off another action-packed year for our group. To learn more, visit our group's news page.

Rumors of whether we will debate the burning issue of whether students should stand during football games remain unconfirmed.

POLITICAL UPDATE--Education

This update focuses on education. A new school year is underway. Government control and liberalism continue to damage education. Meanwhile, teachers' unions are striking in the Detroit Public Schools and Eastern Michigan University.

Phyllis Schlafly shows how courts and the NEA are imposing liberalism on education.
Schlafly explains that government schools stifle debate about evolution.
Walter Williams exposes liberalism and miseducation on college campuses.
Bob Williams explains how unions take their members' money and give it to liberals.
Dan Lips explains how technology is improving education.
Andrew Young and Walter Block argue that education should be privatized.

Football follies

Western opened its football season on "CommUniverCity" night. The result, a 31-10 Bronco win over Toledo, left no reason for complaint. I have a couple other complaints, however.

It is practically impossible to park for the game without paying. Western has blocked off all the lots within half a mile of the stadium. To account for the parking shortage, Western set up a shuttle bus from Lawson Arena. However, they also require payment for those lots as well. They even blocked off the Miller ramp and surrounding lots--even though these lots stood almost completely empty. The only purpose for blocking them off was to stop people from getting free parking within a reasonable walking distance of the stadium.

Private property owners are within their rights to charge whatever they want for parking. But Western isn't private. It also has a near-monopoly on parking in the area. Western students pay good money for parking permits ($300 per year at last count). They shouldn't be denied access to what they paid for because Western wants to squeeze a few more bucks out of people.

My other complaint has to do with the students. Normal paying fans will stand up when there's a big play, and then SIT BACK DOWN. Western students, on the other hand, STAY STANDING THE ENTIRE GAME. I don't know about you, but standing in place for an hour at a time isn't my idea of fun. Of course, in the student section, you can't sit down if you want to see anything. The view isn't any better than if everyone sat down. And yet everyone stands. (UPDATE: Ok, it's not Western, it's an odd tradition.) There's a reason I don't sit in the student section anymore.

Bronco Bash

Bronco Bash, the annual event where student organizations, businesses, and churches can promote themselves to students, will be held today. It will take place in the area between Rood and Wood halls, roughly between 3 PM and 7 PM.

The WMU College Republicans will have a booth where we will recruit new members, register voters, distribute literature and information, and give away posters. Members of the group are encouraged to stop by and help out. Conservative college students are encouraged to stop by and join our group.

Other worthy groups like the Kalamazoo County Republican Party, Students for Life and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship will also have booths.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to another year at Western!

The first day of classes is now on the books.

Western has torn down enough of the barb-wire fence to make campus passable one again. The sidewalks on the west side of the new chemistry building are complete. Work continues inside the building.

The Western Herald has revamped its website. They now allow comments on the articles. Tuesday's back-to-school issue features an article on tuition that extensively quotes State Representative Jack Hoogendyk. (It doesn't seem to be online.)

The WMU College Republicans are ready for another action-packed year promoting conservative culture, policies, and candidates.

Right to Work

Labor day is a day when nobody works, which is a pretty good summary of the labor movement these days. The labor movement is not a natural product of the worker solidarity, if it ever was. Instead, it is a creature of legal privilege. Specifically, if a given employer is unionized, the government forces all workers to pay union dues whether they want to or not.

This is outrageous. People should not be forced to give money to a union if they don't want to. Apparently, a majority of Michiganders agree. An article in the Free Press states that a poll shows that voters support repealing mandatory union dues by a 56-35 margin. This is true in a heavy union state, with 42% of union members supporting the change.

The unions aren't happy about this.

Peter Eckstein, an Ann Arbor-based economist formerly on the staff of the Michigan AFL-CIO, said that if the question had been posed not as an issue of choice, but as whether workers should be allowed to freeload off of union benefits paid for by others, the response may have been different.

He's right, but freedom of choice is the right way to think about it. The fact is that you have to pay the union regardless of whether it produces the promised benefits.

I'd love to see how liberals would like to see the "free rider" argument used against them. For example, we know that gun ownership reduces crime. This benefits everyone, not just the people who own guns. The National Rifle Association defends gun ownership. Therefore, everyone should be required to pay dues to the NRA.

Or how about this. Some people who are now alive would have been killed without the current restrictions on abortion. Therefore everyone should be forced to pay dues to Right to Life.

Then there's this.

Kevin King, 34, a unionized librarian in Kalamazoo's public library system, said he would vote against attempts to make Michigan a right-to-work state. But even King, who grew up in a UAW household and is active in his union, said he can see the complexity in the issue.

Kalamazoo has unionized librarians?

If unions want my money, they should have to work for it. But that's not the union way.

Detroit Public Schools

Putting the interests of the children ahead of anything else, "teachers" in the Detroit Public Schools are planning an illegal strike. The only good thing that one can say about them is that given the disastrous state of the Detroit Public Schools, perhaps it would be better if they just stayed on strike. From Human Events:

The Detroit school district faces a $105 million budget shortfall this year, which is why officials proposed the pay cut for teachers. In recent years, the school system has hemorrhaged, with as many as 10,000 students leaving each year to attend charter schools, private schools, and suburban school districts, according to the Detroit News.

There is a good reason students are leaving in droves: Just 22 percent of Detroit public school students graduate. That’s the lowest graduation rate among the nation’s 50 largest school districts, according to a recent report published by the Council of the Great City Schools. The system with the second-worst graduation rate is Baltimore City, where 39 percent of students graduated -- a pitiful performance but nearly twice Detroit’s rate. About 26,000 Detroit students are currently enrolled in chronically failing public schools, as defined under No Child Left Behind.

...

The lesson of the Thompson donation controversy, as well as the current teachers’ union strike, is clear: The public education establishment has different interests than children and families. While the Detroit public schools systematically fail their students, the greatest concerns of the teachers union and the public school bureaucracy are to protect their own interests and prevent any competition, without regard for what would benefit students.

POLITICAL UPDATE--Communism

This update focuses on communism. Whatever the fate of Fidel Castro, communists remain in control of Cuba. Meanwhile, Red China continues to plot against freedom.

Humberto Fontova shows how liberals have defended Castro.
Bruce Bartlett tells how the New York Times helped put Castro in power.
Jerome Corsi exposes China's use of slave labor.
Ed Timperlake argues that China is responsible for North Korea's nuclear weapons.
Timperlake exposes Chinese espionage in America.
Ron Paul explains how our taxes subsidize China.
Pratik Chougule explains how the Venona project proved communist subversion.
Walter Williams examines communism in American academia.

The Great Deception

Something is rotten in Europe. That is the inescapable conclusion after reading The Great Deception: The Secret History of the European Union by Christopher Booker and Richard North.

Booker and North provide a detailed history of the construction of the European Union. As the title implies, every stage of this long process has been cloaked in deception.

The real goal of the European Union is to create a supernational government that will control all of Europe. It will have common economic, monetary, foreign and military policies, along with its own constitution, flag, anthem, and all the other trappings of a state. It will have practically limitless power to interfere with every aspect of its subjects' lives. Furthermore, the EU would not be democratic in any meaningful way, but would be dominated by a small elite.

In fact, much of this already exists. This is not an accident. It was foreseen from the beginning by its founder, Jean Monnet, who was plotting a United States of Europe as early as the 1920s. However, Monnet realized that the people did not support his schemes. Thus he decided that his plans would have to be implemented gradually and by using deception.

Hence the book's title. Monnet and the plan's proponents consistently lied about the true nature of the European project. Whatever step was being considered was always small and innocuous, without any broader implications. It was always directed towards some laudable goal, such as improving cooperation with other countries, promoting peace, improving the economy, and reducing regulation. In truth, the nations of Europe were progressively surrendering their sovereignty.

Particularly interesting is the use of "free trade" in this debate. Proponents of the European project often argued that it was just a free trade agreement or that it would promote free trade. But instead of reducing taxes and regulation, it transferred them to a higher level. It reduced national tariffs and regulation, but increased European tariffs and regulation. The European bureaucrats, or Eurocrats, have created thousands of new laws governing almost everything imaginable. Europeans ended up with less economic freedom, not more.

In fact, the European project bears a disturbing resemblance to the efforts of American elites to destroy our sovereignty through "free trade" agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and the SPP.

The authors show that the European Union is not democratic. It has elections, but they have virtually no impact on the decisions that the EU makes. The real powers are the unelected, unaccountable Eurocrats and judges.

Booker and North are prominent British Euroskeptics, and they approach the EU from a British perspective. British prime ministers have either outright betrayed their country by participating in the deception or have been naive proponents of Europe who were consistently maneuvered into surrendering more sovereignty.

Margaret Thatcher began as a proponent of "Europe." As Prime Minister, she became increasingly opposed to the EU. Eventually, EU leaders inspired members of her own party to launch a coup to remove her from office.

Awareness of the true nature of Europe has grown of late, leading to the rejection of the proposed European constitution by referenda in France and The Netherlands. The future of the European project is now uncertain. But even if it goes no further, a great deal has already been lost.

The Great Deception is packed with detail and at times can make for difficult reading. But it is well worth it for anyone who is interested in protecting national sovereignty.

Judge commits fraud

Responding to the latest sham lawsuit filed against the MCRI, a Clinton-appointed federal judge allowed it so stay on the ballot while attacking it for supposedly committing fraud. The claim is that the backers of the petition drive lied to get signatures to get the MCRI on the ballot.

The claims of fraud are debunked in a detailed report on the Michigan Civil Rights website.

An excellent article in the Wall Street Journal describes the tactics that the communist front-group BAMN used to pressure and intimidate signers of the petition. Mainstream media reports continue to ignore the background of this extremist group in their reports.

The article is well worth reading in its entirety. Here is an excerpt.

So the group launched an "investigation." They systematically called and personally visited blacks who'd signed the petition. In some cities, they had friendly talk show hosts read the names of black signers over the radio. In all cases BAMN's message was the same: How could you, a black person, sign a petition to roll back affirmative action?

BAMN's high-pressure tactics worked. Some signers and even gatherers decided they'd been deceived. In some cases they recalled being told that the petition was to "support affirmative action" and to help get their "children into college." Using pre-printed affidavits (some "signed" over the phone), BAMN collected statements from dozens of individuals and started a legal campaign to get the referendum pulled.