During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school’s success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them.

But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in their operations.

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So, one of the aspects of Obamacare that is not being talked about too much is the fines Obama will inflict on average, middle class Americans that don’t want to join his nationalized healthcare service.

At this point, Obama favors a $1,000 fine to those of you that don’t want any part of a nationalized system under his control. That’s $1,000 of your hard earned money swiped away from you for not knuckling under to his dictats.

For an interesting exercise, I thought I’d check around the web to see what fines around the country would be for other things, things that are far more egregious of a violation of the law. Things like illegal drug possession, assault, or drunken driving.

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Over the last few weeks dozens of Iranians yearning for a more democratic government, striving to beat back the oppressive Mullahs, desperate to live free, have been killed in the streets of Iran during democratic protests. In China Uighurs and members of the religious sect Falun Gong are constantly attacked, imprisoned, tortured and killed for their ethnicity or beliefs by Chinese officials. Not long ago Buddhist Monks were killed by police for their protests in the streets of Myanmar. And on a nearly daily basis, members of the Taliban are killing villagers for not observing their oppressive rule in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

We live in times of violent protests tearing at some of the most oppressive governments in the world. And so, Australia’s ABC fielded a report about one “violent” protest experienced by one of its own reporters. Was it murderous Islamists attacking villagers? How about Chinese thugs killing ethnics? Perhaps it was an Iranian Mullah ordered massacre of citizens wanting democracy that frightened her so much?

Uh, no. It was Orthodox Jews that spit on her.

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Of his Social Security program, Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that the whole thing had nothing to do with helping the aged. “They were politics all the way through,” he said of his Social Security payroll withholding taxes. In other words, the So. Sec. program was created solely to give the Democrat Party a permanent majority on the “we care” ticket. FDR knew from the get-go that the program was an unsustainable sham but it was all about politics, not old people anyway.

Seventy some years later Barack Obama was praised as a second coming of FDR when he ran for office. His promises of everything for everyone were hailed as a second new deal. As we all know the economy took a dive at the tail of 2008, it continued apace into 2009 and once Obama took office he campaigned hard for a “stimulus” plan to lift America from its economic doldrums. It was an “emergency” he said, we couldn’t get by without it, he claimed. He cared about all of America, you see, and he, the great father in Washington, had the cure for what ails us. The great god of D.C. loved all his children we were sonorously informed.

Well, maybe not all. You see, just as FDR’s “help” only went to further his own political goals and not the country’s economic recovery, Barack Obama’s benevolence seems to have benefited mostly those that voted for him.

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Have you ever met someone that just can’t stop talking about a particular topic or person regardless of the subject of conversation? Folks like that slip their obsession into every conversation until people just don’t even want to start up a conversation with them any more. And when an unsuspecting person starts talking with such a person, everyone in the know around them just roll their eyes and avoid eye contact. It is beginning to get like this when reading anything in the Old Media these days because it seems that regardless of the topic under discussion, start struck love for Obama is slipped into the piece somehow.

The Detroit News’ Marney Rich Keenan gives us a perfect example of this in hers headlined, “Whatever happened to simple phone etiquette?” It’s supposed to be a piece lamenting the loss of the formal way of answering a telephone and really has nothing to do with politics. Keenan waxes nostalgic for that formal way of talking to folks and seems to say this loss is a cultural coarsening that is something to mourn… except when Obama does it, of course. Yes, when The One does it, why it’s cool and hip and makes her “go weak in the knees.”

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Recently, the Smosska Corporation swooped into Florence, South Carolina promising to instantly create some 400 new jobs with an assurance of 3,000 before next year is out. For an area that needs jobs this seemed like welcome news.

Last week a job fair was held in Florence by the new company at which free health care was offered those that would be hired. At that time an aptitude test was taken by applicants if, that is, they had the $40 fee to pay to take the thing. The company claimed this “fee” would be used to pay for drug tests if they were hired. This fee, however, made some people curious.

The fee and several other curious characteristics of this company caused suspicions to be raised about its legitimacy. It turns out, there is not yet an actual building in which this Smosska Corporation is housed, there don’t seem to be too many current employees, and there doesn’t seem to have been any actual products created by Smosska in the past — though the corporation is supposed to have been formed in 2001. Even the original email address given out was a Yahoo account, not an official corporate web host address.

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Hey, grandma, hurry up and die so that Obamacare can pay for healthcare for more worthy, younger folks. That seems to be the message that The New York Times is selling in order to smooth the waters for the nationalized healthcare system that president Obama is trying to peddle to us all.

The Times is running a series titled “Months to Live” in order to help spread the sort of end of life issues that are helpful to Obama’s healthcare agenda, one of which seems to be the idea that elderly should forgo any sort of heroic measures to keep them alive so as not to waste those resources that might be able to go to younger, more vital patients.

In a July 8 article reporting on the end of life care afforded Catholic Nuns in Pittsford, New York, the Times hailed the “dignified” way that nuns end life there with particular emphasis on how many of them refuse extraordinary efforts to keep themselves alive. Apparently, the Times thinks we should emulate the nuns and just let ourselves die without trying too hard to keep on living.

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Idaho is about to get its first conservative high school, Nampa Classical Academy, to be opened next semester in Nampa, Idaho. Founder Isaac Moffett has organized the school as a public charter school.

It’s about time that a school based on American exceptionalism again grace the land and Moffett aims to fulfill that very goal.

Nampa Classical will teach Latin and Western classics, including the Bible. The school will not teach “certain sex ed,” will eschew anti-American rhetoric and troop bashing and will impart the “good of America, the good of Western civilization,” Moffett said.

Moffett has modeled his curriculum on that of Hillsdale Academy, a private Christian prep school in Michigan which is part of Hillsdale College.

Moffett told the reporters at Boise Weekly of a good book that might enlighten parents as to his goals.

Moffett recommends that teachers and parents read the book Classical Education: The Movement Sweeping America published by Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank.

Moffett cautions, though, that his school is not an associate of any Christian charter school organization and that his campus is not a Christian ministry school, but a “hybrid of the moral and democratic schools of classical education.”

This school will be one to watch. If it is a success, and let’s hope it is, it could serve as a model for others. This country sorely needs to inaugurate schools that celebrate out nation instead of ones that tear it down. If we are to get back to our roots, this would be the first step toward that goal.

So, I wish good luck to Mr. Moffatt and his new school.

Soak the “rich.” That’s the plan. In fact, that is always the plan with tax and spend Democrats. This time it is a new “surtax” on Americans making over $250,000 a year (or $350,000 per couple) to pay for Obamacare.

Ominously, the plan has a hike mechanism right at the outset as Charlie Rangel (D, NY), head of the House Ways and Means Committee, has inserted language that will raise the tax higher if they don’t get as much money as they want with this first dip into the rich folk’s wallets. If anyone thinks Democrats will imagine they’ve gotten enough the first time and that the hike trigger doesn’t need to be pulled… well, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

So, who will this hit? Can anyone doubt that it will be doctors themselves? After such a raid into American’s paychecks, it will be doctors that will find that they are being taxed in order to pay themselves further reduced rates by government reimbursements through this new healthcare system.

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In this report we get a nice one-two punch. Not only are we seeing Democrats once again refusing even a tiny compromise with Republicans on Obama’s takeover of nearly 20% of our economy with his healthcare plans, but we also get to see another example of why Huffington Post is not journalism. I like a nice one-two punch for a Wednesday.

For one thing, the HuffPo article hilariously calls Democrat pitbull Rahm Emanuel a “conservative Democrat.” But let’s start with the more important political point and deal with the HuffPo chicanery second.

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For those that want universal healthcare, the panacea of “coverage” is expected to “give” all those currently without healthcare coverage the access they need to the medical care they now lack. This sounds wonderful all things being equal. It sounds caring and big hearted of them to want everyone to get medical care. But what is the practical outcome of this desire with a system in government hands?

Obama has claimed that he wants to create a sort of standard minimum of coverage provided by government for those entirely without. Again, it sounds like a great idea but how long does that minimum standard stay minimum? Unfortunately, what might be considered minimum now would quickly become all inclusive with just every kind of service imaginable added to the plan as inevitable government “mission creep” continues to raise the bar for political reasons.

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Representative Alcee Hastings (D, Fla.) is touting his amendment to H.R.2647, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. Section 524 stipulates a “prohibition on recruitment, enlistment, or retention of persons associated or affiliated with groups or associated with hate-related violence against groups or persons of the United States government.”

As Hastings congratulates himself on a job well done — you know, cuz no one else will — one has to wonder exactly who it is that will determine what a “hate” group is in order to keep the armed forces free of “hate-related violence”? It turns out Hastings has given this power to the office of the Attorney General of the United States. That would be Eric Holder, the guy that wants to release Guantanamo terrorists into the interior of the country.

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OK, my headline is admittedly too simplistic. In fact, the whole medical malpractice milieu is sorely in need of a fix. We have unnecessarily large awards to aggrieved patients, crushing insurance costs to doctors to cover malpractice, a situation where defensive medicine drives up costs, and an entire industry of lawyers whose job it is, apparently, to rape the system and cause it to be burdensome for all of us. On top of that, we have a national party in the Democrats assisting these very destructive lawyers to do just that. This is a part of our medical system that truly needs reform.

We can start by getting Democrats to stop doing everything they can to bend over backwards for the John Edwards’ of this world — ambulance chasers extraordinaire. Democrats are the reason this has gotten so bad. And imagine, we are trusting to Democrats to “fix” what they, themselves broke with the greedy assistance of the trial lawyers.

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Orlando Sentinel movie reviewer Roger Moore was excited to report on the efforts of some Harry Potter fans that want to “change the world” based on their interpretation of Potter character Dumbledore’s philosophy of life. He was happy, you see, because the group is all about “global transformation” and spreading global warming fears, gay marriage and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Moore writes abut a group called the Harry Potter Alliance whose website is a sort of Potter fan message board where fans write about what they are doing with their ideas on Potter philosophy. But, it goes “beyond the personal,” Moore approvingly says.

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If you want to see the logical disconnect of unions and their lap dog lawmakers where it concerns costs to government, one need look no further than the over indulgent healthcare plan that New Hampshire’s state workers have been lavished with.

On July 4, the Boston Globe published a story that details the incredibly rich healthcare plan that state workers have succeeded in getting due to union negotiations with pliant Democrat lawmakers. It seems that they get just about any kind of care they want and all for “free.” It’s called a “Cadillac” healthcare plan and it is amazing for its coverage.

According to the Globe, surgery is free for New Hampshire state workers. So are MRIs, CT scans and X-Rays. It gets even more indulgent.

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We may know by the end of the week how the Democrats are claiming they will pay for their healthcare plans. News out of the House of Representatives is that they will introduce their bill on either Thursday or Friday of this week.

In the mean time, on Tuesday a caucus meeting with Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) will be held on Tuesday to discuss the funding plans. This will be followed by a brief by House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) while Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) will speak on Friday. Rangel is last because his committee is in charge of finding the tax increases that will pay for the plan.

Democrats also say that the “public option” will be a prominent feature of their bill and will be similar to the current Medicare system.

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I have a few questions for all you non-union employees out there (which is 80% of America). Can you lobby your employer for a raise any time you feel like it even when your company is nearly bankrupted? And, do you have employees that can get off work to do so when ever they want to? And do you have bosses that are also one of you and who can just bow to your every demand?

Sounds like a wonderful situation, doesn’t it? I mean, who wouldn’t want a situation where you can get whatever you want as an employee (including never getting fired) no matter if your company is bankrupt or not?

Well, that is the deal that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has with its employers. You see, they have folks that are so close with the employer that whenever they decide they want more benefits or a raise, they go demand it and it happens. It truly is the dream job.

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It seems that on July fourth, The New York Times saw fit to smirk at both American patriotism and Christianity. A recent Times article about the erection of a giant, though strategically altered, replica of the Statue of Liberty by a showman of a Memphis pastor presented a perfect example of the ridicule and disdain with which the Times views Christianity and American patriotism, both. In Memphis, Tennessee, writer Shalia Dewan could barely hide her sarcasm and distaste for the patriotism and the muscular Christianity espoused by Pastor Alton R. Williams in her coverage of the unveiling of the 72-foot-tall statue.

Tellingly, the entire top third of Dewan’s piece is filled with mockery, mischacterization, inapt comparison and quote after quote from Pastor Williams’ detractors. It isn’t until the initial ridicule is over that writer Dewan finally gives the pastor room to explain what his purpose and principle is in creating the odd paean to Lady Liberty.

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For the Associated Press, Tim Klass shows that taking liberties with facts by enveloping them in wild hyperbole can sex up a boring story into something much more alarming. Unfortunately, what one ends up with is not a presentation of news, but a promulgation of a narrative that befits a particular political agenda. And this time writer Klass uses his hyperbolic style to advance the guns-are-evil story line.

The headline startles the reader by screaming out “Powerful weapons found in Northwest drug raids.” One immediately imagines an image of dozens of high powered and dangerous guns, those above and beyond the norm, in the hands of these felonious drug dealers. One imagines enough guns to arm an army with the police sorely out numbered. But, when the story is read in its entirety, it becomes obvious that “powerful weapons” turns into one high powered pistol, the rest being your average, everyday firearms seen all over the place.

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Governor Schwarzenegger said it exactly right. Unions and lap-dog, Democrat legislators in Sacramento are doing their best to make sure that everyone but they have to sacrifice to save California’s budget. The governor told reporters that unions and Democrats are telling Californians, “We want you to make the sacrifices but we in Sacramento don’t want to make any sacrifices or any changes.”

Unions are pointing fingers at everyone but themselves and refusing to budge on cuts in their overweening benefits, lush pay scale and perks but are insisting everyone else make the sacrifices to save union jobs. And, let’s face it, jobs is all the unions care about. They have no interest in what is good for the state or the taxpayers.

I’d suggest a little fix that might help. Instead of furloughing state workers, how about firing some of the most unnecessary jobs and getting rid of them altogether?

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