Join in the conversation with us Monday morning at 10 am CST. Call in number 714-242-5220
Women On the Wall Radio with hosts Alice Linahan and Rebecca Forest has a mission to Seek the Truth, Share the Truth and Stand For The Truth. Tomorrow we take on the issues that matter to the safety and security of our children and we don’t hold back!!
We believe that the women of America play a central role in the protection and security of our sovereign nation. The grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and sisters of American women of all political persuasions, age and race are the stewards of the home and hearth and will stop at nothing to defend and protect their families and their country.
We are the daughters and granddaughters of the women of America’s GREATEST generation. They answered the call to save America and the world from Hitler’s horrific plan for humanity. Once again, America was awakened. Since 9/11, our nation’s women have been vigilantly standing watch, calling attention to the dangers facing our children and our homeland.
We are so excited to have Donna Garner Education advocate and writer for 33+ yrs. We will take on CSCOPE and specifically the TESCCC/CSCOPE who has contracted with Resources for Learning (RFL) to do an independent review of CSCOPE. Who is RFL? Are they connected with Common Core Curriculum? Donna Garner has the answers.
Here is a link to our last show on CSCOPE with Donna Garner.
The issue of CSCOPE is very important and Donna Garner does an exceptional job of explaining the history of CSCOPE and why it is so important that we push back against it.
We are delighted to have national security policy hawk Lisa Benson is back to up-to-date us on the important issues that effect the safety and security of our children and grandchildren. Lisa’s segment is titled- “The Subtle and Effective Jihad: The Infiltration into Community By the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Of course Rebecca and Alice will take on the latest issues of the day.
Knowledge is Power and together we can make the difference!!
Texas Legislators, just scan through this article; and you will see why Common Core Standards is interested in buying CSCOPE. All that would then need to be done is to add links to CSCOPE (if they are not already there) that would take public school students throughout this country (including Texas) to the various pro-Muslim/Islamist entities listed in this article. This is just another reason why CSCOPE and all of its content must be open to the public to try to protect our children from indoctrination “at the click of a mouse.” – Donna Garner
JERUSALEM – A Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education and the State Department to facilitate an online program aiming to connect all U.S. schools with classrooms abroad by 2016.
WND previously exposed that Gregorian served as a point man in granting $49.2 million in startup capital to an education-reform project founded by former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers and chaired by Obama.
Documentation shows Gregorian was central in Ayers’ recruitment of Obama to serve as the first chairman of the project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge – a job in which Obama worked closely on a regular basis with Ayers.
Obama also later said his job at the project qualified him to run for public office, as WND previously reported.
Connecting schools to fulfill Obama pledge
The Qatar Foundation International, or QFI, in 2011 partnered with the Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to facilitate matchmaking between classrooms in the U.S. and international schools through something called the “Connect All Schools” project.
QFI, funded by the Qatari government, explains on its website the initiative was founded in response to Obama’s call in his June 2009 speech to the Arab world in Cairo, Egypt, to “create a new online network, so a young person in Kansas can communicate instantly with a young person in Cairo.”
The stated goal of the initiative is to “connect every school in the U.S. with the world by 2016.”
This is not the QFI’s first foray into the U.S. education system.
WND reported last May the Qatar-based foundation awarded “Curriculum Grants” to seven U.S. schools and language organizations to “develop comprehensive and innovative curricula and teaching materials to be used in any Arabic language classroom.”
QFI, based in Washington, D.C., is the U.S. branch of the Qatar Foundation, founded in 1995 by Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
Thani is still the group’s vice-chairman, while one of his three wives, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairs the organization’s board.
Thani also launched Al Jazeera in 1996 and served as the television network’s chairman.
The Qatar foundation is close to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In January 2012, it launched the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics under the guidance of Tariq Ramadan, who serves as the center’s director.
Ramadan is the grandson of the notorious founder of the Muslim Brotherhood,Hassan al Banna. Ramadan was banned from the U.S. until 2010 when the Obama administration issued him a visa to give a lecture at a New York school.
QFI, meanwhile, named several institutions after Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many regard Qaradawi as the de facto spiritual leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
The foundation instituted the Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi Scholarships and in 2009 established a research center named the Qaradawi Center for Islamic Moderation and Renewal.
Qaradawi has personally attended scores of foundation events, including conferences at which he served as a keynote speaker.
Qaradawi achieved star status because of his regular sermons and interviews on Al Jazeera.
Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corp. charitable foundation, was appointed by Obama in 2009 as a White House fellow. Born in Tabriz, Iran, Gregorian served for eight years as president of the New York Public Library and was also president of Brown University.
As Brown president, Gregorian served on the selection committee of the Annenberg Foundation, which funded Ayers’ Chicago Annenberg Challenge with a $49.2 million, 2-to-1 matching challenge grant over five years. Ayers was one of five founding members of the Annenberg Challenge who wrote to the Annenberg Foundation for the initial funding.
Steve Diamond, a political-science and law professor and a blogger who has posted on Obama, previously posted a letter from Nov. 18, 1994, in whichGregorian, serving as the point man on Annenberg’s selection committee, asked Ayers to “compose the governing board” of the Challenge’s collaborative project with “people who reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of Chicago.”
Ayers and other founding Challenge members then recruited Obama to serve as the project chairman.
WND was first to expose that Obama and Ayers used the project grant money to fund organizations run by radicals tied to Ayers, including Mike Klonsky, a former top communist activist who was a senior leader in the Students for a Democratic Society group, a major leftist student organization in the 1960s from which the Weathermen terror group later splintered.
National Review Online writer Stanley Kurtz examined the project archives housed at the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago, finding Obama and Ayers worked closely at the project.
The documents obtained by Kurtz showed Ayers served as an ex-officio member of the board that Obama chaired through the project’s first year. Ayers also served on the board’s governance committee with Obama and worked with him to craft project bylaws, according to the documents.
Ayers made presentations to board meetings chaired by Obama. Ayers also spoke for the Chicago School Reform Collaborative before Obama’s board, while Obama periodically spoke for the board at meetings of the collaborative, the project documents reviewed by Kurtz show.
WND reported Obama and Ayers also served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a liberal Chicago nonprofit that granted money to far-left causes.
One of the groups funded by the Woods Fund was the Midwest Academy, an activist organization modeled after Marxist community organizer Saul Alinsky described as teaching tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation.
WND reported Jackie Kendall, executive director of the Midwest Academy, was on the team that developed and delivered the first Camp Obama training for volunteers aiding Obama’s campaign through the 2008 Iowa Caucuses.
Camp Obama was a two- to four-day intensive course run in conjunction with Obama’s campaign aimed at training volunteers to become activists to help Obama win the presidential election.
Obama scholar linked to ‘Ground Zero’ imam
Meanwhile, WND reported Gregorian is closely tied to the Muslim leaders behind the controversial Islamic cultural center to be built near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Gregorian also serves on the board of the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. The museum is reportedly working with the American Society for Muslim Advancement, whose leaders are behind the mosque, to ensure the future museum will represent the voices of American Muslims.
“[The Sept. 11 museum will represent the] voices of American Muslims in particular, and it will honor members of other communities who came together in support and collaboration with the Muslim community on September 11 and its aftermath,” stated Daisy Khan, executive director of the society.
The Sept. 11 museum’s oral historian, Jenny Pachucki, is collaborating with the society to ensure the perspective of American Muslims is woven into the overall experience of the museum, according to the museum’s blog.
Khan’s husband, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is the founder of the society as well as chairman of Cordoba Initiative, which is behind the proposed mosque to be built about two blocks from the area referred to as Ground Zero.
With Gregorian at its helm, Carnegie Corp. is at the top of the list of society supporters on the Islamic group’s website.
Carnegie is also listed as a funder of both of the society’s partner organizations, Search for Common Ground and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Gregorian was a participant in the U.N. body’s first forum, as was Rauf.
Rauf is vice chairman on the board of the Interfaith Center of New York, which honored Gregorian at an awards dinner in 2008.
World domination
Gregorian is the author of “Islam: A Mosaic, Not A Monolith.” According to a book review by the Middle East Forum, his book “establishes the Islamist goal of world domination.”
A chapter of the book, “Islamism: Liberation Politics,” quotes Ayatollah Khomeini: “Islam does not conquer. Islam wants all countries to become Muslim, of themselves.” Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is quoted stating it “is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”
Gregorian himself recommends for Muslims a system he calls “theo-democracy,” which he defines as “a divine democratic government” that, according to the book review, “would have a limited popular sovereignty under the suzerainty of Allah.”
WomenOnTheWall.org has begun a nationwide media campaign to call on Women across America to stand together to defend our Nation from threats both foreign and domestic. The video linked above is for you to share with your friends and neighbors so they will understand the true nature of the threats we face.
Click to take a pledge HERE to STAND with Women across America!
See Breaking News below on Pat Hardy~ Call to Action after you find out who Thomas Ratliff is call Pat Hardy and ask her why she would support him?
WOMEN ON THE WALL RADIO TAKES ON CSCOPE WITH EDUCATION EXPERT DONNA GARNER.
The issue of CSCOPE is very important and Donna Garner does an exceptional job of explaining the history of CSCOPE and why it is so important that we push back against CSCOPE.
You can find out HERE if your district is using CSCOPE!
SUBJECTS DISCUSSED:
Importance of the confirmation by the Texas Senate of Barbara Cargill as chair of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE)
CSCOPE — a highly questionable curriculum used in almost 80% of Texas public schools – operating under the radar
Excerpt from letter sent from an SBOE member to Donna Garner, 7.23.11:
Donna,
Thomas Ratliff voted for electronic instructional materials that all require Microsoft software. We even encountered prompts to download Microsoft downloads/updates to access materials. With SB6, the Computer technology lobby bill, the SBOE determines the amount of $$ (50%) distributed to the ASF for district’s instructional material allotment. Ratliff is even on the PSF committee that will develop the recommendation. Senate committee video/ (and registration) will show him testifying that he LOVED this bill.
Importance of the election of Ken Mercer as Vice Chair of the SBOE Executive Committee
SBOE Members – Pat Hardy and Thomas Ratliff
Just Breaking: In response to an e-mail asking Pat Hardy who she would be supporting for vice-chair for the SBOE.
I will be supporting Thomas Ratliff to be selected as vice-chair for the SBOE. Please read the attachment as it addresses false comments that are being sent on the internet.
Women On the Wall Radio with hosts Rebecca Forest and Alice Linahan has a mission to Seek the Truth, Share the Truth and Stand For The Truth. Tomorrow we take on the issues that matter to the safety and security of our children and we don’t hold back!!
We believe that the women of America play a central role in the protection and security of our sovereign nation. The grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and sisters of American women of all political persuasions, age and race are the stewards of the home and hearth and will stop at nothing to defend and protect their families and their country.
We are the daughters and granddaughters of the women of America’s GREATEST generation. They answered the call to save America and the world from Hitler’s horrific plan for humanity. Once again, America was awakened. Since 9/11, our nation’s women have been vigilantly standing watch, calling attention to the dangers facing our children and our homeland.
Tomorrow morning we will haveDonna Garner on the show to take on the issue of CSCOPE ~ What it means for Texas Children, Who is behind it and why it must be stopped.
DONNA GARNER – Educator for 33 years, appointed by President Reagan, Now Activist Writer
Breaking News~
The Texas State Board of Education meets this coming Wednesday. At that time, two crucial people will be chosen for the three-member Executive Committee. Those three people determine the agendas and which members become committee chairs. Barbara Cargill is the chair of the SBOE and of the Executive Committee, but there are only three on the Executive Committee. If Thomas Ratliff, who is on the Board illegally, is chosen as the Vice Chair and one more left leaner is chosen as the Secretary, then Texas Children and their future is at great risk.
We are excited to announce our friend and colleague Lisa Benson will do a weekly National Security briefing on the WOW radio show. Lisa is a National Security Hawk and Mom who understands the threats we face.
Tomorrow Lisa’s segment is titled : “Houston, We Have A Problem.”
To Learn Why – View the WOW 2012 Interactive Video “Avoidable”
Click Photo to Watch the Interactive Version of AVOIDABLE
WomenOnTheWall.org has begun a nationwide media campaign to call on Women across America to stand together to defend our Nation from threats both foreign and domestic. The video linked above is for you to share with your friends and neighbors so they will understand the true nature of the threats we face.
Click to take a pledge HERE to STAND with Women across America!
Women On the Wall Radio with hosts Rebecca Forest and Alice Linahan has a mission to Seek the Truth, Share the Truth and Stand For The Truth – 10:00 – 11:00 CST every Monday morning.
We believes that the women of America play a central role in the protection and security of our sovereign nation. The grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and sisters of American women of all political persuasions, age and race are the stewards of the home and hearth and will stop at nothing to defend and protect their families and their country.
We are the daughters and granddaughters of the women of America’s GREATEST generation. They answered the call to save America and the world from Hitler’s horrific plan for humanity. Once again, America was awakened. Since 9/11, our nation’s women have been vigilantly standing watch, calling attention to the dangers facing our children and our homeland.
We are excited to announce our guest on Monday January 14th will be Lisa Benson. Lisa is a National Security Hawk and Mom who understands the threats we face. Lisa will be joining us to talk about the issue of Chuck Hagel’s nomination.
Lisa Benson will share her insight and wisdom so we as the grandmothers, mothers, daughters and sisters of America will have the knowledge to defend our nation for future generations to come.
To Learn Why – View the WOW 2012 Interactive Video “Avoidable”
Click Photo to Watch the Interactive Version of AVOIDABLE
WomenOnTheWall.org has begun a nationwide media campaign to call on Women across America to stand together to defend our Nation from threats both foreign and domestic. The video linked above is for you to share with your friends and neighbors so they will understand the true nature of the threats we face.
Click to take a pledge HERE to STAND with Women across America!
Published By: Lisa Benson –National Security Consultant, Analyst, Public Speaker, NS Fundraiser
Neoconservative backers of the Iraq War have long had issues with Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of Defense (OSD). Of all the stories floating around about the nomination of Chuck Hagel, his involvement with the George Soros — Obama’s Boss — and the devil incarnate is the most insidious in my opinion.
Hagel has a long-standing feud with Lindsey Graham and John McCain over breaking away from supporting the Iraqi war. However, as much as I am reading that Obama’s choice for OSD is to exasperate a rift within the Republican establishment, I am inclined to believe that the purpose is broader, more sweeping and more serious than just what the mainstream media is reporting.
In my opinion, if we activists and national security/Pro-Israel policy hawks focus on the minutia of Hagel’s remarks regarding Israel, we will certainly lose any effort to thwart his appointment.
This appointment can only be stopped in its tracks if our elected officials get to the root of the problem: the overarching agenda of this administration and those who support it.
The “paymaster of the Democratic Party” is behind this nomination; the man who is responsible for many of the problems that beset the west. GEORGE SOROS
Much is written about Soros and his communist connections beginning when he fled Hungry in 1946. He made exits through major Soviet check points even when others could not. He traded currencies on the black market during Hitler’s occupation in Hungary and started a banking enterprise, worldwide. Much is written, spoken and debated about the Soros plan for a “one world order” and his communist connections.
The Obama “brain trust” includes the likes of George Soros, John Podesta (who managed the Obama transition team in 2008), Gary Hart, Mike Allen, Brent Scowcroft and Thomas Pickering.
This week we learned that the Obama “brain trust,” with the financial backing of George Soros, hired the brother of John Podesta – Tony Podesta – of the elite lobbying firm THE PODESTA GROUP, Washington, D.C. to take up the Hagel cause. In short order: the Podesta firm has been hired to influence defense contractors to finance, promote ads and back Chuck Hagel. By “influence” I mean “support or lose your government defense contracts” is the not so subtle innuendo. Financed lobbying effort by George Soros.
What IS very concerning to me is the involvement of notorious Communist, George Soros in the nomination of Chuck Hagel.
As someone said to me today, ”Soros is as Jewish as Hitler was a Christian.”
Everything George Soros involves himself with is to promote a Progressive, Socialist, Communist reformist agenda, including his backing of Chuck Hagel.
…And What About the Deutsche Bank?
Hagel was appointed in 2009 to Deutsche Bank’s Americas Advisory Board. The PAID position placed him in close contact with the bank’s senior leadership.
Here is the clincher and a jaw dropping revelation:
Germany’s Deutsche Bank is reportedly being probed by U.S. authorities for VIOLATING the trade embargo on Iran’s oil and energy sector, which is believed to play a key role in Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Much of this information regarding Deutsche Bank can be read in THE WASHTINGTON FREE BEACON. However, the George Soros promotion of Hagel is hardly spoken.
Most recently, and in my opinion, seriously concerning, is evidence of Hagel as an IRANIAN APOLOGIST, as an opponent of sanctions or strong policy against a nuclear Iran. His appointment continues the Obama administration’s weak, apologetic and appeasement diplomacy this administration is known for — weak and uninformed is the norm in the Situation Room. As witnessed by the horrific details emerging regarding Benghazi.
When the nomination for the United States Secretary of Defense merits a press release from the Iranian government, as happened yesterday, applauding the President of the United States for his choice for OSD, everyone needs to take notice — or should take notice.
Summary:
Tony Podesta, THE PODESTA GROUP, tripled its staff three years ago, receives half a million dollars a year from General Dynamics, a military contractor. Brother John is a close ally of President Obama and headed up the Obama transition team in 2008.
We have a Socialist/Communist lead administration, funded by George Soros, making government contract deals with defense contractors. ??????
Some say that George Soros is a pawn for the Obama administration. I beg to differ. Soros is the boss and he is dangerously manifesting his “one world order” plan on the backs, and in contrast, to everything this Republic stands for.
“Bye Bye American Pie!”
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is the principal staff element of the Secretary of Defense in the exercise of policy development, planning, resource management, fiscal, and program evaluation responsibilities. OSD includes the immediate offices of the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Under Secretaries of Defense, Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Assistant Secretaries of Defense, General Counsel, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Assistants to the Secretary of Defense, Director of Administration and Management and such other staff offices as the Secretary establishes to assist in carrying out assigned responsibilities.
Hagel, as a “Soros Machine Puppet” will be responsible for every aspect of our nation’s defense, and apparently, George Soros has great influence on the Obama administration and on the policy and direction of the United States. This, actually makes me shudder.
It is obvious, after conducting this research that Chuck Hagel, if appointed, will be a pawn/ puppet and member of the Soros Machine ready, willing and able and positioned to lead the charge against strong national security policies. Israel will be hanging out there alone in the Iranian matter.
Finally, I would like to add, if we keep the heat on the Hagel nomination, don’t be so sure that Hagel himself won’t opt out of the appointment.
TELL THE CHAIRMAN OF THE US SENATE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
“US President Barack Obama called Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to underscore the necessity of ending Hamas rocket fire into Israel, and to talk about ways to de-escalate the situation. Perhaps someone should remind President Obama who funds the Hamas, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and where a lot of the $360 Million US Dollars are actually going.
Mr. Obama, do you not think that America is indirectly funding the rockets and missiles that are being fired into Israel by the Palestinian terrorists?
When will the US administration understand that the hate generated against Israel is equal to the hate generated against America and all of the values that America stands by?
Why are we elevating the profile of the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader, Morsi as a leader in these talks with Hamas?
Who is Morsi?
From the Team at Secure America Now– put together an exclusive booklet, compiled from Mohamed Morsi’s very own words, with over a dozen documented sources. The truth is disturbing.
Egpyt’s new Muslim Brotherhood President is a virulent Anti-Semite and militant Islamist. Read and distribute this exclusive file on Morsi, prepared by Secure America Now analysts.
Print the booklet and show to others in your community. Let the public know.
Women on the Wall we must be educated on the issue of National Security and stand with the women of Israel. This is the Hide and Seek game their children play. Only it is not a game it is life and death. In Sderot, Israel there is only 15 seconds to take cover when the red code is activated.
Terror continues in the United States and Benghazi does matter.
He Said Allahu Akbar-The Attack On Fort Hood
Ask yourself what is the LONG TERM DAMAGE OF THE BENGHAZI BETRAYAL on our Nation? This issue will not go away after Romney is elected and we must be prepared for another 9-11. At Women On The Wall we understand that we are not going to elect someone to save us, we must save ourselves. In order to do that we must be educated on the issue of National Security so that we do not fall prey to those who do not have the best interest of America at heart.
As a reminder from Michelle Malkin:“Thirteen men and women, plus the unborn child of Pvt. Francheska Velez, died in the bloody terrorist rampage at Fort Hood three years ago today.”
Ed Morrissey pointed out on Hot Air.com , Muslim extremist Army Maj. Nidal Hasan has been held for almost three years after shouting “Allahu akbar” and opening fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood … killing 14 and wounding a couple of dozen others. Almost immediately, evidence arose that Hasan had been in contact with the late and unlamented al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki to discuss the legitimacy of conducting jihad within the American military hadn’t intervened prior to the massacre. Most people assumed that was enough to consider the massacre a terrorist attack … but the Obama administration refused to do so then and still refuses to do so – choosing instead to call it … get ready … “workplace violence.” The victims and families of those murdered by Hasan want that changed.
If one believes that the battle for the nation’s soul is occurring, not just in Washington, D.C., but in schools across the nation, the steady advance of Turkish-Gulen Charter Schools may be cause for alarm.
Fethullah Gulen on 60 Minutes
Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish Islamic cleric who fled his native country in 1998, after being charged with seeking to overthrow the secular Turkish government. He currently lives in exile at a 28-acre mountain complex in the Pocono Mountains, with more than $25 billion of assets at his command.
The 135 charter schools associated with the Gulen Movement (GM) enroll more than 45,000 students and comprise the largest charter school network in the United States — all of which are fully funded by American taxpayers. Fethullah Gulen has been under investigation by the government since 2011.
That investigation, carried out by FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education, is centered around charter school employees who are allegedly engaged in kicking back part of their salaries to the Muslim movement (known as Hizmet, service to others), founded by Gulen.
Gulen initiated his movement in Izmir, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast, more than 40 years ago, preaching impassioned sermons to his followers, who may now number as many as six million. In Turkey, the Gulen Movement has been accused of pushing for a hardline Islamic state.
Yet, despite this reality, government officials investigating the kickback scheme are apparently satisfied that there is no religious agenda being disseminated in America. Their investigation is centered around the hundreds of Turkish teachers, administrators and other staffers employed under the H1B visa program, who may or may not be misusing taxpayer money.
This would appear to be a stunningly naive approach to the issue. H1B visas allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations on a temporary basis. “Specialty occupations” are defined as “requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human endeavor.”
Click Photo for more information from Texas
Gulen schools are among the nation’s largest users of the H1B visas. In 2009, they received government approvals for 684 visas. The Harmony School, a Gulen-related institution, has applied for more H1B visas than any educational institution in the country.
GM officials at some of the charter schools that ostensibly specialize in math and science, claim they need to fill teaching spots with Turkish teachers. At the Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School in State College, Ruth Hocker, former president of the parents’ group, grew suspicious when certified American teachers began to be replaced by uncertified Turks with limited English-speaking skills who, despite that limitation, commanded higher salaries.
Parents pointed out that these uncertified teachers were moved from one charter to another when their “emergency” credentials expired. They also spoke about a pattern of sudden turnovers of Turkish business managers, administrators and board members.
Similar complaints arose in Texas, where it was revealed that hundreds of Turkish teachers and administrators were also working with H1B visas. In addition, the Harmony School group was using taxpayer money to fund Gulen’s movement via school construction and renovation projects.
Despite assertions that the bidding process on those projects was fair, records showed that virtually all of the work has been done by Turkish-owned contractors, according to the New York Times.
A former teacher from Turkey reportedly told the FBI that the Gulen Movement had divided the United States into five regions, with a general manager in each who coordinates the activities of the schools, and related foundations and cultural centers.
All of the above raises the obvious question: If these schools are traditional American charter schools that do nothing more than “follow the state curriculum,” as Tansu Cidav, the acting CEO of the Truebright Science Academy in North Philadelphia contends, why is it necessary to hire foreign teachers and coordinate activities nationwide?
A federal document released in 2011 may provide the answer. It posits that Gulen’s charter schools may in fact be madrassahs, where students are “brain-washed” to serve as proponents of the New Islamic World Order Gulen purportedly seeks to create.
The American Thinker’s Janet Levy takes it one step further. After noting that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan belongs to the AKP political party founded by Gulen upon his arrival in Pennsylvania, she points out that, “Turkey is reverting to its historical Ottoman Empire-inspired Islamic fundamentalism,” even as “it is pursuing a stealth or cultural jihad against the West, in large part through the efforts of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Islamic theologian.”
In a 1999 video, Gulen himself spoke of a surreptitious plan for taking over the Turkish government: “You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers … until the conditions are ripe … The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it[.]”
The movement is well on its way towards achieving that aim. GM is now active in 140 countries. Aside from its charter school empire, other interests include boarding schools, universities, banks, media companies, newspapers, charities and think tanks.
In a 60 Minutes report, Leslie Stahl was forced to acknowledge that while Gulen “invites conspiracy theories that he’s running Turkey from the Poconos and is bent on global Muslim domination,” his movement “does lack transparency — its funding, hierarchy, and ambitions remain hidden–leading our State Department to wonder in cables between Ankara and Washington if Gulen has an ‘insidious political agenda.’ ”
This is not the first investigation conducted of Gulen’s empire. In 2008, members of the Netherlands’ Christian Democrat, Labor and Conservative parties agreed to cut several million euros in government funding for organizations affiliated with Gulen. An investigation ensued when Erik Jan Zürcher, director of the Amsterdam-based International Institute for Social History, along with five former followers who had worked for Gulen, told Dutch television that the Gulen community was moving step-by-step to topple the secular order.
In Pennsylvania, neighbors of Gulen’s fortress complain of hearing automatic gunfire and the drone of a surveillance helicopter that constantly searches for intruders. One hundred Turkish guards stand watch over the property as well. If this man and his movement–which continues to expand–have nothing to hide, they have a remarkable way of showing it.
As a Turkish observer speaking to the New Republic noted, “No society would tolerate this big of an organization being this untransparent.”
The FBI’s new investigation against Gulen’s organization brings us one step closer to exposing what goes on behind the closed doors of Gulen’s empire.
Data points continue to accumulate about the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. The picture that is beginning to emerge from connecting those dots is deeply concerning on multiple levels. Two related issues dominate this analysis: The systematic stripping of security protection from the Benghazi mission prior to the 9/11 anniversary attack and the cold-blooded refusal to send or even permit local help the night of the attack.
As Fox News Bureau Chief of Intelligence Catherine Herridge suggested on the “Mike Huckabee” show on Oct. 27, both of these critical subjects may have been driven by a perceived need to cover up the likely purpose for the existence of that mission in the first place, i.e., to serve as a U.S. command hub for the movement of weapons out of Libya to Syrian rebels fighting to bring down the Bashar Al-Assad regime.
It has now been established through the persistent work of Congressional leadership figures and such investigative journalists, media and talk show hosts as the Fox News network, the Glenn Beck show,Michael Coren at Canada’s Sun News, Aaron Klein at World Net Daily and Diana West that the Benghazi mission played a central role in a U.S. government policy of “engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East,” as Center for Security Policy president, Frank Gaffney, put it.
According to media reporting, Benghazi was staffed by CIA operatives whose job may have been not just to secure and destroy dangerous weapons (like RPGs and SAMs) looted from former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s stockpiles during and after the 2011 revolution, but also perhaps to facilitate their onward shipment to the Al-Qaeda- and Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Syrian opposition.
President Barack Obama signed an intelligence finding sometime in early 2012 that authorized U.S. support for the Syrian rebels and by mid-June 2012, CIA operatives reportedly were on the Turkish-Syrian border helping to steer weapons deliveries to selected Syrian rebel groups. According to an Oct. 14, 2012New York Times article, most of those arms were going to “hard-line Islamic jihadists.”
One of those jihadis may well be Abdelhakim Belhadj, former leader of the Al-Qa’eda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and head of the Tripoli Military Council after Qaddafi’s ouster. During the 2011 revolt in Libya, Belhadj was almost certainly a key contact of the U.S. liaison to the Libyan opposition, Christopher Stevens.
In November 2011, Belhadj was reported to have met with Syrian Free Army (SFA) leaders in Istanbul, Turkey, as well as on the Turkish-Syrian border. Further, Belhadj’s contact with the SFA comes in the context of official policy adopted by the post-Qaddafi Libyan “government,” which sent a delegation to Turkey to offer arms and possibly fighters to the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. “There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” according to a Libyan source quoted in a November, 2011 Telegraph report.
The multilateral U.S.-Libya-Turkey agreement to get weapons into the hands of Syrian rebels – which were known to be dominated by Al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood elements — by working with and through Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist figures like Belhadj, seemed confirmed by the appearance of a Libyan-flagged vessel, Al-Entisar, which docked at the Turkish port of Iskanderun on September 6, 2012.
Suspected of carrying weapons bound for the Syrian rebels, the ship’s cargo reportedly included Russian-designed, shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS, RPGs and surface-to-air missiles—all of them just the sort of weapons available in Libya.
Stevens’ last meeting in Benghazi the night he was killed was with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, who is variously reported to have been there to discuss a weapons transfer or a warning about the possible compromise of the Libyan weapons pipeline to Syria. Whatever the topic of Ambassador Stevens’ discussion with Akin, he clearly and knowingly put himself in harm’s way to be there, in Benghazi, on the night of September 11.
The urgency that compelled Stevens to Benghazi that night seems especially difficult to understand given what was known to him as well as to senior levels of the Obama administration about the extremely dangerous situation in post-Qaddafi Libya.
It is all the more baffling then that, in view of the obvious priority that the U.S. government had placed on its Libya-to-Syria weapons pipeline operation, such a systematic effort in the weeks leading up to the September 11 attack was dedicated to stripping the Benghazi base of the security protection it so desperately needed in a deteriorating Libyan security environment and despite the repeated pleas of Ambassador Stevens and others in both Tripoli and Benghazi for more security.
In August 2012, Stevens reported that the security situation in Benghazi was deteriorating, yet in spite of this, the 16-man Site Security Team assigned to Libya, comprised of Special Forces led by SF LTC Andy Wood, was ordered out of Libya, contrary to the Ambassador’s stated desire that they stay.
Note that, at any time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could have ordered the deployment to Benghazi of additional security experts from the Department of Security (DoS) Bureau of Diplomatic Security (or Diplomatic Security Service—DSS), but apparently chose not to do so.
Instead, DoS hired a British firm, Blue Mountain, to manage its security in Benghazi, and Blue Mountain subcontracted the job to a local jihadist militia called the February 17 Martyrs Brigade who have known Muslim Brotherhood ties.
Then, in what may have been the attack “green light,” on September 10, 2012, AQ leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Libyans to avenge the death of his Libyan number two, Abu Yahya al-Libi, who had been killed in a June, 2012 drone strike in Pakistan. The timing suggests that al-Zawahiri may have given the attack go-ahead after receiving word that Stevens had arrived in Benghazi that day—further suggesting that perhaps AQ knew of Stevens’ travel plans.
Once the attack unfolded at the Benghazi base, it quickly became apparent that the minimal number of U.S. and local security staff was completely unequal to the scores of heavily armed jihadist attackers swarming the compound. And yet, despite a live-streaming video from an overhead drone, plus cables and cell phone calls that, altogether, must have been received by hundreds of administration diplomatic, intelligence and military officials (including the U.S. President, Vice President, Secretaries of Defense and State, and Directors of National Intelligence and CIA), military support from regional bases was denied repeatedly to the besieged Benghazi defenders.
Worse yet, former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods, who was providing security for CIA operatives at the Benghazi annex facility, and Glen Dougherty, who had arrived on a rescue flight dispatched by the CIA Chief of Station in Tripoli, repeatedly were denied permission by their CIA chain of command on the ground to go to the aid of Ambassador Stevens and the others.
Eventually, they went anyway, and succeeded in saving many lives because of their moral and physical courage. Once back at the CIA annex, they all came under heavy fire there too. Again, Dougherty and Woods requested military backup, at least to silence the mortar fire that they had been able to identify by laser painting it. They fought on alone for hours, but when no help came, that mortar barrage eventually took both their lives and seriously injured others.
When asked why he didn’t authorize military assets to scramble to Benghazi’s defense, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta claimed that he didn’t know what was going on and “could not put forces at risk in that situation.” This is patently false on both counts: Panetta most certainly did know that an American Ambassador and other staff were under military assault by jihadist forces who had invaded the sovereign territory of a U.S. diplomatic facility. Whether U.S. military assets — either air support or Special Forces — could have arrived in time to save lives is unknown at this point, but the administration’s refusal to say when the president first learned that Benghazi was under attack, that the ambassador was in peril and that the Al-Qaeda-linked Libyan jihadist group, Ansar al-Shariah, had taken credit for the attack invites speculation.
The White House refusal to comment on when exactly the president first met with the National Security Council after the attack began doesn’t help either. (And the weeks of deliberately false statements from a range of administration figures who tried to claim that an obscure trailer for a film no one had ever seen was to blame for the Benghazi debacle only confirms suspicions about the administration capitulation to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) demands for limits on free speech.)
For his part, CIA Director David Petraeus has denied that either he or anyone else at CIA refused assistance to Dougherty and Woods, saying that “No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.” This leaves only the president himself responsible for the decision to allow the Benghazi base to fall and four Americans to die.
How could he or any of those present when this momentous decision was made not have tried to make every effort imaginable to defend American territory and save American lives? House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa believes President Obama had a political motive for rejecting Ambassador Stevens’ security requests because he wanted to show that conditions in Libya were improving, possibly to justify U.S. intervention in the Libyan revolution or even help pave the way for oil company investment.
Whatever the thinking that left a U.S. mission abroad so undefended that it practically constituted an open invitation to Al-Qaeda, and then, in cold blood, refused to launch military support in defense of Americans fighting and dying to defend U.S. sovereign territory from jihadi assault, the cover-up is fast becoming the worse failure. It is time for administration leaders, from the president on down, to explain both their actions and their failures to act.
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Seek~get educated on the issue of National Security Share~ this information to your friends and neighbors Stand~ ask your friends and neighbors to join us on the wall
Seek~get educated on the issue of National Security Share~ this information to your friends and neighbors Stand~ ask your friends and neighbors to join us on the wall
Knowledge is Power ~ Empower Yourself With the Truth Protect Our Nation for Future Generations
Knowledge is Power and if we are to save our country for generations to come we must get educated on the issues of National Security. As Michelle Morin @Moms4Freedom says…..
Perhaps if all journalists were sent to spend a year on the ground with terrorists, we would then see a mass conversion to truth in media.
Lara Logan’s speech is based on years of inside, on the ground investigation with the Taliban.
Watch it here.
Now that we know the challenges we face what do we do next.
WE stand together! Because we understand that our nation and Israel are at risk of being forever changed.
Polling shows that National Security is a key issue for Women Across America.
“I have been working on a story that when I first broached the idea, everybody looked at me skeptically, even the trusted people around me who have been through a lot with me, and that was a story about al Qaeda in Afghanistan today. It’s funny because nobody thought that was an issue to be paying attention to, and nobody thought there was any real traction to that, and it pissed me off. ’Cause I knew I wasn’t wrong. I had covered that war from the beginning and I had watched what was happening on the battlefield, and I had never missed a year of the Afghan war. … I knew that we were being lied to, and I knew that the American people were being misled. … I don’t think that politics should dictate national security policy.”
“This is terrorism. It’s a completely and utterly different fight from anything we have faced in our history, and that’s why we chose to do this story.”
“Our way of life is under attack. If you think that’s … war-mongering, you’re not listening to what the people fighting you say about this fight..
“In your arrogance you think you write the script but you don’t. There’s 2 sides, and we don’t dictate the terms.”
“Not only do we not dictate the terms, but we have less power to dictate anything on the world stage. We now face an enemy about whom former US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said: ’We’ve killed all the slow and stupid ones, and the ones that are left are more committed, and they didn’t become any kinder or gentler in the last 11 years. We think we’ve won the campaign when they haven’t even begun to fight.’ ”
“I can’t stand that a major lie is being propagated about the real situation. I don’t care who’s in power.”
“If you fail to identify what your enemy is really fighting for, I don’t see how you can possibly have the right strategy.”
“When I look at what’s happening in Libya, there’s a big song and dance about whether this was a terrorist attack or a protest. And you just want to scream, “For God’s sake are you kidding me?” The last time we were attacked like this was the USS Cole, which was a prelude to the 1998 enbassy bombings, which was a prelude to 9/11. And you’re sending in FBI to investigate. I hope to God that you’re sending in your best clandestine warriors who are going to exact revenge and let the world know that the United States will not be attacked on its own soil, that its ambassadors will not be murdered, and the United States will not stand by and do nothing about it.”
Why are women all across America coming together to stand on the Wall?
Join the Women Across America who are taking their place on the Wall.
Because we understand that our nation and Israel are at risk of being forever changed.
A new, 18-minute mini-documentary follows the journey of Irina, a 23-year-old liberal, Jewish New Yorker who voted for Obama in 2008. Yet as her connection to Israel has grown, and she has learned more about the President’s policies across the Middle East and towards Israel in particular, Irina has come to realize that “when the chips are down,” the President may not “have Israel’s back” as he says.
WomenOnTheWall.Org Pledge is motivated by a single issue: National Security threats that face our nation both foreign and domestic. Based on polling provided by Secure America Now in battleground states women consider national security a “High Priority”.
Women On The Wall will fill that vacuum with a powerful, call to action for Women across America to come together to form a wall of security around our Nation to protect our children and grandchildren. “Women On The Wall” is where women all across America will unite and pledge to educate ourselves and others on the serious national security threats our nation faces. We pledge to educate fellow Americans to insure that we will not fall prey to elected leaders and Administrations that do not have America’s best interest at heart.
We will ask women to Join with Us and take their place on the Wall and help secure and save America for generations to come. We ask men join us by lifting us up onto the wall. Together we can make a difference!
1. Do You Pledge to take time to educate yourself on the serious national security threats our nation faces so that we can protect our country for future generations?
2. Do You Pledge to share information you find about National Security threats America faces with your friends and neighbors?
3. Do You Pledge to ask other women of all faiths, colors and political backgrounds across America to join us on the wall?
Why is the Narrative so Important? This is the one issue that can bring women of all faiths, colors and political backgrounds together to fight for America. This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue it is an American issue. Obama is fundamentally changing the safety and security of America and our allies to an extent we may not recover from unless he is removed from office. In order to accomplish that the American people must be educated on the issue of National Security and the threats we face.WOMEN must STAND together now and demand a safe and secure nation for our families to live and thrive in.
Photo by Big Bang Photography in Amarillo, Texas of Genaro Bedoy tragically KIA on September 16th, 2012 in Afganistan.
“More than 1,000 American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan in the last 27 months. This is more than the combined total of the nine years before. Thirty have died in August. The commander in chief is AWOL. Not a peep, although he ordered the White House flag flown at half-mast for the Sikhs that were killed. There is a deep disgust, a fury, growing in the ranks of the military against the indifferent incompetence of this president. It has taken on a dangerous tone. No one knows what to do about him, but the anger runs deep as the deaths continue with no strategic end in sight to the idiocy of this war.
Obama has had 4 years to end this futile insanity, during which time he has vacationed, golfed, campaigned, and generally ignored the plight of our men and women in uniform. But, there is now a movement afoot in the armed services to launch a massive get out the vote drive against this president. Not just current active duty types, but the National Guard, Reserves, the retired, and all other prior service members. This is no small special interest group, but many millions of veterans who can have an enormous impact on the outcome of the November election if they all respond. The million military retirees in Florida alone could mean an overwhelming victory in that state if they all show up at the polls. It might not keep another one hundred U.S. troops from dying between now and November, but a turn out to vote by the military against this heart breaking lack of leadership can make a powerful statement that hastens a change to the indifference of this shallow little man who just lets our soldiers die.”
Weather you are Military or not Here is what you can do to make a difference~
Join Women across America and take a STAND
I Pledge to STAND On the WALL with Women Across America~
Click Photo to Stand with Women all across America!
WomenOnTheWall.Org Pledge is motivated by a single issue: National Security threats that face our nation both foreign and domestic. The Obama Administration has gone out of its way to create a security environment that threatens America and Israel for future generations to come. Based on polling provided by Secure America Now in battleground states women consider national security a “High Priority” yet the Romney and RNC narrative on national security is still lacking, if they cannot we must in order to get Romney elected.
Women On The Wall will fill that vacuum with a powerful, call to action for Women across America to come together to form a wall of security around our Nation to protect our children and grandchildren. “Women On The Wall” is where women all across America will unite and pledge to educate ourselves and others on the serious national security threats our nation faces. We pledge to educate fellow Americans to insure that we will not fall prey to elected leaders and Administrations that do not have America’s best interest at heart.
We will ask women to Join with Us and take their place on the Wall and help secure and save America for generations to come. We ask men join us by lifting us up onto the wall. Together we can make a difference!
1. Do You Pledge to take time to educate yourself on the serious national security threats our nation faces so that we can protect our country for future generations?
2. Do You Pledge to share information you find about National Security threats America faces with your friends and neighbors?
3. Do You Pledge to ask other women of all faiths, colors and political backgrounds across America to join us on the wall?
Why is the Narrative so Important? This is the one issue that can bring women of all faiths, colors and political backgrounds together to fight for America. This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue it is an American issue. Obama is fundamentally changing the safety and security of America and our allies to an extent we may not recover from unless he is removed from office. In order to accomplish that the American people must be educated on the issue of National Security and the threats we face.WOMEN must STAND together now and demand a safe and secure nation for our families to live and thrive in.
2. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President is a new player on the world stage. Check out Secure America Now’s exclusive guide to President Morsi. Learn more about the man who called Jews descends of Apes and Pigs. And there is a lot about the United States, Israel, Jihad,….
First, Secure America Now reported on the absurdity of inviting Mohammed Morsi to the United States. Then, thousands of Secure America Now users signed the Petition to Stand Up to the Moslem Brotherhood.
Now, they put it all together in an exclusive booklet, compiled from Mohamed Morsi’s very own words, with over a dozen documented sources. The truth is disturbing.
Egpyt’s new Muslim Brotherhood President is a virulent Anti-Semite and militant Islamist. We’ve put together this exclusive packet to educate the public about this truth.
Read and distribute this exclusive file on Morsi, prepared by Secure America Now analysts.
Citizens Groups Join Pastors to Call on Congresswoman to Apologize
Boots of Liberty Task Force, Local Texas Pastors, and WomenOnTheWall.org call on Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18) to Apologize for Her Recent Remarks Equating so-called “Militant Christians” with Radical Islamists
June 23, 2011 (HOUSTON, TX) – A coalition of concerned citizen groups led by Anita Moncrief founder of Boots of Liberty Task Force (BOLT), Pastor Jim Bowie, Associate Minister at True Life Missionary Baptist Church, Alice Linahan of WomenOnTheWall.orgare joining together Thursday, June 23, 2011 to demand an apology from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18).
BOLT founder Anita Montcreif said, “Sheila Jackson Lee’s attempt to somehow compare radical Islam’s stated purpose to subjugate the globe to a handful of violent criminals who are regularly condemned by mainstream Christians is an insult and a smear of peaceful Believers of all faiths.”
Alice Linahan, Social Media Director of WomenoftheWall.org said, “What the Congresswoman chooses to ignore is that Christian theology, including Jesus Christ, doesn’t advocate wiping off the map anyone of any ethnicity or belief. Furthermore, the right to an abortion, or the right to choose an abortion, is not a Constitutionally-protected right; however the right to life is.”
Pastor Jim Bowie, Associate Minister at True Life Missionary Baptist Church said, “Those interested in partisan politics in the United States have increasingly rejected God and Christianity while those who try to hold on to traditional Christian values are under attack like never before. Sheila Jackson Lee’s statement hammers home the reality that American values, interests and security are not the concern of some of those in power. Christians are fighting for our freedom even in this Christian nation.
“Ms. Jackson Lee owes an apology to her Christian constituents in Texas and across the country for her underhanded, equivocating remarks that can only be interpreted as an attempt to diminish the international scourge of Islamic terrorism.”
During a hearing about Muslim radicalization in U.S. prisons, Jackson Lee suggested Texas investigators look into the threat of so-called Christian Militants’ attacks on abortion clinics are an attempt to “bring down America.”
PJTV Commentator Alfonzo Rachel responded to Ms Jackson Lee, saying, “Planned Parenthood undermines the black community and is the number one-place to go for blacks to participate in their own genocide. Many black people will go because they see the right to choose an abortion is more enlightened than the right to life.”
Moncrief said, “Ms. Jackson Lee bombastic remarks illustrate the need for the efforts I will be announcing at the press conference today at 2:30 at Pearland Town Centre. Soon, Americans will be able to confidently vote their values, and have their voices heard.”
After vowing to remain actively engaged in the legislative process and to “keep a keen eye” on the workings of the 82nd Texas Legislature, WomenOnTheWall.org is once again on the front lines standing side by side with Grassroots and Tea Party activists to call on Texas House of Representatives to “Pledge” support to the voters of Texas instead of to the current Speaker of the HouseJoe Straus.
“What we have witnessed during this legislative session is what was feared most about the election of incumbent Speaker Joe Straus,” said Rebecca Forest, Co-Founder of WomenOnTheWall.Org, “Grassroots, immigration, and Tea Party activists who were against Joe Straus during the Speaker Showdown warned of another liberal leaning session on important issues and unfortunately, we have been proven correct.” In Texas the Speaker is the one who establishes the agenda because he appoints the committee chairs and the committee members. As Donna Garner grassroots activist writer states “It is the conservative legislators who have dared to rock the Straus boat and they are the ones whose legislation has largely been killed and the ones whose districts have been decimated on the redistricting maps, Garner continues “Under Straus’ leadership, this 82nd Legislative Session has not acted judiciously and promptly to pass our conservative agenda even though we were the ones who showed up in such large numbers on Nov. 2, 2010 to “take our country back.”
WomenOnTheWall.org has released a No Pledge to Straus Internet video as well as an outstanding .30 second No Pledge to Straus ad which will be aired beginning June 13th 2011 through the end of the Special Session. Straus used the pledge card system to become the current Speaker of the House and then it appears he promised sizeable campaign contributions to legislators in exchange for their votes for him as Speaker.
“The Pledge Card system ended up giving Straus the ultimate power in the House, says Alice Linahan WomenOnTheWall.org board member and producer of the latest videos. Linahan continues, “With that power he has killed the Conservative agenda, and because of this those Representatives who bill themselves as “Conservatives” must not “Pledge” support for his reelection as Speaker in 2013. Grassroots and Tea Party supporters will have no other option than to run an opponent against them in the 2012 primaries.”
“Straus and his supporters’ arrogance in openly fulfilling their threats perpetrated on fellow Republicans is an obvious indication of a sense of immunity from the will of the people. On the outside, it certainly has the smell of corruption and an abuse of power. With a closer look, there’s no doubt in my mind the stink is real; and it is certainly disgusting, states John Alaniz Temple, Tx Businessman
The Call to Action for Texans….call your State Representative and ask them to not “Pledge” support for the current Speaker of the House in 2013.
First let me say thank you to my friend Kevin Jackson with The Black Sphere for that line “They are on the Take”. I just got off the phone with him and if you don’t know who he is you are missing out. He’s a great guy and doing wonderful work at the boots on the ground level.
Let me just say it is lucky for Speaker Joe Struas that Kevin Jackson is not living in Texas. He would really be in big trouble. I am hoping at some point I can get Kevin to Texas so he can work a little Comedic magic and really bring out the issue of our State Reps. having their hands deep in Straus’ pockets.
OK here is the deal, it is actually pretty simple. First watch this video and then just think about it.
Basically what we have in Texas is a bunch of elected officials who are on ” The Take” and are putting their name on the list as willing to be funded for their reelection campaign by the Speaker of the Texas House.
Question, is there something wrong with this picture?
For some background: the Texas Speaker of the House is a powerful position, elected from among the 150 State Representatives as the first act of any incoming legislature. However, there has been a long-standing ‘tradition’ of pledge cards that has made this nothing but a sham in the case of a seated speaker. The real backroom process is about as democratic as a mugging and is a tradition than needs to go the way of the Chicken Ranch.
Here’s how it really works. A seated Speaker has hordes of special interests slavering to do favors for the one individual that controls ALL legislation- and tens of billions in State spending. And they have VERY deep pockets for donating vasts sums for campaigns. toward the end of the session, the Speaker will approach each representative and ask for them to sign a pledge card, promising to support the Speaker for re-election in the NEXT session. And everyone KNOWS that donations and future committee assignments are tied to this decision. This last session, redistricting was also a weapon to be used and it apparently was, resulting in a kangaroo court version of an ethics investigation. Normally, a seated Speaker can get nearly all of his own party’s cards; they ALSO can get many for the opposing party, based on favorable committee assignments and- you can be assured- assistance at killing selective majority party legislation by letting it die in the committees controlled by the Speaker.
And in open seats, candidates parade down to Austin looking for donations for their runs. They are judged by the ‘powers that be’, on whether they are willing to ‘play the game’. In the majority party, that very often involves a willingness to sign a pre-election pledge card. Sign a pledge, and doors are opened and donations made.
The major problem with the raw exercise of political power is there is ZERO input by the electorate in this. They don’t wait for the office holder or candidates are validated by the voters; they don’t brook any input from the electorate after. This is the power of the ‘Austin machine’ and it is time to challenge that when it matters- BEFORE the session is out, BEFORE the election.
We are delighted to have national security policy hawk Lisa Benson is back to up-to-date us on the important issues that effect the safety and security of our children and grandchildren. Lisa’s segment is titled- “The Subtle and Effective Jihad: The Infiltration into Community By the Muslim Brotherhood.” 
Arnold Ahlert
