About six weeks ago, Kathy Kersten reported on TiZA, which was masquerading as a charter school. Now the Minnesota Dept. of Education has weighed in on what’s actually happening at the school. Here’s what the DoE’s report says:

Most of the school’s operations follow state charter school law and federal guidelines on prayer in schools, but the department found two areas of concern, said Morgan Brown, an assistant commissioner with the department.

School director Asad Zaman said he takes the state’s concerns seriously and will address them as soon as possible. He also took the report as vindication, saying: “I now have proof that this is not a religious school.”

But the report said the school may be violating the law by allowing voluntary Friday prayers that most students attend to take place on school grounds. Those 30-minute prayers take up so much time that they may be a burden to non-praying students, and could mean the school isn’t teaching students for as many hours a year as the state requires. Letting teachers participate, even though they don’t lead prayers, may give students the impression that the school endorses Islam.

Imam Zaman is spinning things when he said that he has “proof that this is not a religious school.” The DoE says otherwise when it says that the “school may be violating the law by allowing voluntary Friday prayers.” The DoE saying that letting “teachers participate…may give students the impression that the school endorses Islam.” (continue reading post »)

That’s the title of Phil Brennan’s Newsmax article. It’s the perfect title for the article because Murtha and Time have gotten precious little right about the insurgents’ November 19 attack in Haditha. Let’s start with what they got right since that won’t take much time:

There was an insurgent attack in Haditha on November 19, 2005. The 3/1 Marines were involved. After that, you’ve got to do alot of searching for anything else that they got right. Let’s get to Phil Brennan’s article because, unlike Tim McGirk’s article, it’s got alot of important information.

On Nov. 19, 2005, during an insurgent ambush of the Marines of Kilo Company 3rd battalion 1st Marines, 15 Iraqi civilians and nine suspected insurgent ambushers were killed. One Marine was killed in an IED explosion and two others seriously wounded.

Thanks to the battalion intelligence officer, Lt. Jeff Dinsmore, who monitored the daylong engagement, the entire Marine chain of command were given the full story of the engagement that very night and it was agreed that no further action in connection with the civilian casualties was needed.

Phil Brennan has been one of the people who’s actually disseminated Article 32 testimony. His reporting hasn’t been perfect in terms of timeliness but it’s been solid. Here’s another important bit of information:

Typical of Murtha’s rantings were his comments on a May 28, 2006, ABC News broadcast. In response to George Stephanopolis’ comment that he claimed to have been briefed several times since Nov. 19 and said that that the evidence showed that the Marines had committed cold-blooded murder, Murtha said:

“Well there’s no question in my mind, what happened was an IED exploded. It killed one Marine. And then a taxi drives up. When the taxi comes up there’s four of five people in it. And they shoot … shoot those four or five people unarmed.

“And then they go on a rampage throughout the houses and kill people. One woman, as I understand it, in talking to officials in the Marine Corps, was kneeling over a child pleading for mercy and they shot her in cold blood. That’s the thing that’s so disturbing. And even more disturbing is the fact that we know that the Iraqis knew about it because they made payments to the Iraqis for accidental deaths or salacious deaths whatever you want to call it. And in addition to that, they had … there has to have been a cover-up of this thing.”

That interview won’t reflect kindly on Rep. Murtha. (continue reading post »)

Sean at Fred08 has posted the audio of Fred Thompson’s interview on Glenn Beck’s show. Make sure you don’t miss it. It’s another stellar interview from the only stellar candidate in the field.

Technorati Tags: Glenn Beck, Fred Thompson, Fred08, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

According to this article, Fred Thompson will be Chris Wallace’s guest this Sunday. This type of exposure that close to the Iowa Caucuses has to give the Thompson campaign a boost in making its closing push.

One of the things I’ll be watching for is to see what type of rating the show gets. If it gets a high rating, then that’ll be an indicator that people are still open to picking Fred when Iowans caucus next Thursday.

Contrary to what the pundits are saying, I think there’s alot still up in the air. This CBS article indicates something alarming for the so-called consensus front-runners:

At the very least, voters are having commitment issues. A recent CBS News poll says over three-quarters of Republican primary voters haven’t made up their minds yet.

I don’t know how accurate that poll is. Even if half that many people are still open to change, that’s nearly 40 percent of voters that still haven’t made up their minds. That’s an indicator that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee haven’t closed the sale with Iowa voters.

That’s gotta be especially disturbing for Mitt Romney, considering how much time and money he’s spent in Iowa. This is why I never bought into Hugh Hewitt’s thinking that Mitt had the money. Money doesn’t matter if your credibility is questionable.

The reverse is true of Fred. He’s short on money, though I just noticed that they’d met their fundraising goal to run their ad statewide. He’s short on money but long on credibility and gravitas. This Sunday’s appearance on FNS is a great opportunity for him to appeal to Iowa voters. If Sen. Thompson hits it out of the park like he’s capable, that appearance could make a significant impact on Thursday night’s caucuses.

UPDATE: Fred Thompson picked up another endorsement today. Here’s what their official statement said:

Today Iowa State Representative Gary Worthan announced his support of Fred Thompson for President of the United States. Representative Worthan joins a strong Thompson organization in Iowa already in place and headed by Iowa State Chair Congressman Steve King and Co-Chairs Representative Kraig Paulsen and Representative Sandy Greiner.

“I’ve been impressed with Fred’s ability to boil the issues down to the essential items, without a lot of hyperbole,” stated Representative Worthan. “He just plain tells the truth. We’re in a long hard struggle and there are no easy answers like some of the other candidates are coming with.”

Gary Worthan represents the conservative 52nd District, serving Buena Vista and Sac Counties. He has served in the Iowa House of Representatives since 2007, when he won a special election to replace the deceased Mary Lou Freeman. Worthan currently serves on several committees in the Iowa House, Agriculture, Public Safety, Transportation and Veterans Affairs. He also serves on the Administration and Regulation Appropriations Subcommittee.

Representative Worthan has three sons. His oldest son Ryan is a Major in the Army and earned a Silver Star for serving in Afghanistan and two Bronze Stars for serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shannon is a Captain in the Army and earned a Bronze Star in Iraq.

“I am pleased to have the support of Representative Gary Worthan,” said Senator Thompson. “I admire his leadership in the Iowa General Assembly and his commitment to conservative principles. Representative Worthan understands the increasing challenges we are facing as a nation both domestically and internationally and the need for strong consistent conservative leadership.”

Fred Thompson’s Iowa Statewide Legislative Leadership team includes:

U.S. Congressman Steve King, State Chair
State Representative Kraig Paulsen, Co-Chair
State Representative Sandy Greiner, Co-Chair
State Representative Clel Baudler
Former State Senator Bob Brunkhorst
State Representative Royd Chambers
State Representative Jeff Kaufmann
State Representative Jamie Van Fossen
State Representative Gary Worthan

I don’t know that much about Mr. Worthan but it sounds like he’s a salt of the earth type of guy whose family is committed to serving their country. I suspect that his endorsement includes the help of his organization, which shouldn’t be underestimated.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Chris Wallace, Fox News Sunday, FNC, Iowa Caucuses, Undecided Voters, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This statement from Zogby International chastizes Mark Penn for his statements on Joe Scarborough’s show this morning. Here’s the important paragraph from their statement about Penn:

Penn mischaracterized this latest online Zogby poll as our first interactive survey ever, a bizarre contention, since we have been developing and perfecting our Internet polling methodology for nearly a decade (Zogby Interactive Methodology), and since Penn’s company has been quietly requesting the results of such polls from Zogby for years. We always comply as part of our pledge to give public Zogby polling results to any and every candidate and campaign that asks for them. What is interesting is that no other campaign has made as many requests for Zogby polling data over the years than Penn has made on behalf of Clinton.

(continue reading post »)

Yes, that’s an accurate quote. That’s Hillary’s quote from an interview she did with CNN’s Candy Crowley. Here’s that statement in context:

“I wasn’t at my best the other night,” Clinton told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “We’ve had a bunch of debates and I wouldn’t rank that up in my very top list. But I’ve answered probably, I don’t know, more than 5,000 questions over the last 10 months and I have been very clear about where I stand and what I want to do for the country.”

Suffice it to say that Dick Morris doesn’t agree with Hillary on her being clear about where she stands:

Every time she approaches a microphone, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton labors under the necessity of fudging on her program, offering, instead, an artificial personality and a variety of poll-tested bromides that let her duck key issues.

The resulting circumlocutions were evident in Tuesday night’s Democratic debate. Her plans for Social Security? Clearly, she thinks she may need to raise Social Security taxes, but she can’t say so. Instead, she repeats the poll-tested mantra of “fiscal responsibility” and a “bipartisan commission.”

By “fiscal responsibility,” she means ending Treasury borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund, a policy already in place. By a “bipartisan commission,” she means sharing the blame for unpopular policies with Republicans to minimize the deadly electoral impact. But she can’t explain any of that, so she just repeats the mantra.

If there’s anything that I won’t believe about Hillary, it’s that she’s the re-incarnation of John McCain’s Straight Talk Express. That’s utterly laughable. The Clintons turned parsing sentences into an art form. Does anyone seriously think that the woman who manned the “Bimbo Eruptions” desk in the Clinton War room, then said that Monicagate was “part of a vast Right Wing conspiracy” is capable of being “very clear” on what she believes? (continue reading post »)

Earlier tonight, I saw the film clips of Jimmy Carter’s interview with Wolf Blitzer. To say that Jimmy Carter was his usual nutty self doesn’t tell the whole story. Let me illustrate with this particularly delusional exchange:

BLITZER: Let’s get to the book shortly; let’s talk about some of the issues on the agenda. Right now, Republican presidential candidates, including Giuliani, making the suggestion that if Democrats are elected to the White House, U.S. national security will suffer. Here’s what Giuliani says: “If one of them gets elected, it sounds to me like we’re going on the defense. We’re going to cut back, cut back, cut back, and we’ll be back to our pre-September 11 mentality on being on defense.” What do you want to say to Rudy Giuliani?

CARTER: Well, I thought on pre-September 11 that George W. Bush was in the White House and the Republicans were in charge.

I think, during the Clinton years, we kept our country safe, we protected out interests around the world, we were admired by almost everyone on earth, and we were free. And we were also out of a war. So I think that history has shown that the Democrats are just as firm and staunch on security as are the Republicans. It ought to be a non-partisan issue, and it’s a ridiculous thing for Giuliani to be making a claim of that kind.

What planet does this guy live on? Is he even from this solar system? We sure got hit alot for “protecting our interests around the world“:

Terrorist Acts Suspected of or Inspired by al-Qaeda
1993 (Feb.): Bombing of World Trade Center (WTC); 6 killed.
1993 (Oct.): Killing of U.S. soldiers in Somalia.
1996 (June): Truck bombing at Khobar Towers barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killed 19 Americans.
1998 (Aug.): Bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; 224 killed, including 12 Americans.
1999 (Dec.): Plot to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle foiled when customs agents arrest an Algerian smuggling explosives into the U.S.
2000 (Oct.): Bombing of the USS Cole in port in Yemen; 17 U.S. sailors killed.

(continue reading post »)

Yesterday, Gen. Mattis dropped all charges against Capt. Randy Stone and LCpl. Justin Sharratt of the so-called Haditha Marines. In light of this fact, does Rep. Murtha wish to make a statement about this development?

When I posed this question to Rep. Murtha’s DC office, the woman answering the phone said that Rep. Murtha didn’t have a comment. Before I could ask another question, this woman hung up. That’s when I called Murtha’s DC office back and asked this question:

Considering the fact that Rep. Murtha accused these men during the initial NCIS investigation, why doesn’t Rep. Murtha have a statement?

Her steely-voiced response was “There won’t be any statements until all of the investigations have been completed.”

Undeterred, I asked why they were taking this approach. The woman essentially gave a ‘no comment’ answer. I said that I’d keep checking back until Rep. Murtha did make a statement, to which she replied “That’s just fine, Sir.” before hanging up on me a second time.

Murtha’s staffer is essentially taking an indefensible position because Rep. Murtha has repeatedly made irresponsible and indefensible statements about these Marines. This highlights an obvious double standard on Murtha’s behalf. He didn’t think twice about making these unfounded accusations while the initial NCIS investigation was being conducted but he won’t say a word now when two of the men he accused of cold-blooded murder have been totally exonerated.

Rep. Murtha’s actions throughout this make believe scandal have been reprehensible. As I’ve stated before, his accusations were made before charges had been filed against any of these Marines is a clear violation of their due process rights. Similarly, he violated their right to a fair trial. To top that off, he attempted to have them presumed guilty instead of giving them the benefit of being presumed innocent.

It’s time that this corrupt politician to resign his seat in the House of Representatives and to apologize to the Haditha Marines and their families. Finally, it’s time he apologized to the Marine Corps itself for assuming the worst behavior of these Marines.

Technorati Tags: John Murtha, NCIS, Corruption, Scandal, Haditha Marines, Randy Stone, Justin Sharratt

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Last night, I got a call from Kit Lange from Euphoric Reality, asking if I was available to talk about John Murtha and all things Haditha on her BTR show titled “The Front Line”. I asked what night she wanted me on as a guest and she said “Is 45 minutes from now ok?” I assured her that anytime I could expose John Murtha’s irresponsible accusations was an opportunity I wouldn’t pass up.

Suffice it to say that the hour flew past. Tim Harrington was the star attraction as he walked people through the various Article 32 hearings as well as pointing out the injustices being done by the system. For those of you who haven’t listened to Tim talk about the JAG Corps, NCIS, the Pendleton 8 and Haditha Marines, you’ve missed out on a huge amount of information. If you have heard him talking about these subjects, then you’re likely to have your blood boiling.

I want to thank Kit for allowing me valuable air time to talk about the corruption machine known as John Murtha. I was able to highlight the inconsistencies (aka lies) in Murtha’s statements. I was essentially relying on the information from this post.

The highlight of the program for me came from a caller who asked what we can do about exposing Rep. Murtha. Suffice it to say that I hammered that like Justin Morneau hammered that homerun to straight away center field last night. I said that we should look to what We The People did when the ‘Grand Bargain’ was being debated. I reminded him that people thought it’d pass, that it was a foregone conclusion. That was before we filled every senator’s email inboxes and melted down their switchboard. I said that that’s the type of pressure we need to put that type of pressure on Congress.

I also said that we need to flood the airwaves from border to border with this information. I also said that it’s time for activists to start informing the people about what’s happened thus far. We can’t rally people if they don’t know that these injustices exist. We know that the Agenda Media won’t cover it so that puts the responsibility squarely on activists’ shoulders.

The other thing that we should keep in mind is that the Sharratt family don’t have anyone to turn to in Congress because their congressman is John Murtha. It’s not like he’ll help them. Simply put, he won’t. He’s bent on ruining Justin Sharratt’s life. That’s why I’m asking this blog’s readers to (a) keep Darryl, Theresa and Justin Sharratt in your prayers and (b) ramp up the pressure on Democrats, especially on John Murtha. It’s time that they learned about We The People give them power, not vice versa.

Kit, Thanks for giving me the platform to attack John Murtha’s corruption machine. He certainly deserves it.

Technorati Tags: John Murtha, Haditha Marines, Pendleton 8, NCIS, Corruption, Justin Sharratt, Tim Harrington, Kit Lange, Euphoric Reality

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

According to this article, Fred Thompson’s website ImWithFred.com is a new step in using the internet as a campaign tool. I totally agree.

His organization has opted for a slightly different approach to the Web. Thompson’s website doesn’t have the dizzying array of content blocks the other candidates we mentioned have posted. His main content section is a blog, kept up to date by an administrator at times when the candidate himself isn’t posting.

The important concept Thompson’s people seem to get is the need to have their supporters engage traditional media. His site features specific links to encourage people to write to newspaper editors or call talk radio. Those two sections allow the visitor to pick a state followed by a media market. A results page shows the options available for contacting the media outlet of choice.

It’s universally acknowledged that JFK started ‘the TV Age’ of presidential campaigning. While TV is still an important tool in today’s presidential campaigns, Fred Thompson has started the first true omnimedia presidential campaign. He’s hitting all the radio and TV talk shows. He’s written op-eds for NRO. He’s got his own blog at his ImWithFred website and he’s posted at RedState. He’s used YouTube and other similar types of media to ridicule Michael Moore and to ‘air’ his interview with Peter Robinson.

In other words, he’s taken the internet seriously. In the ‘good old days’ of the 2000 election cycle, the buzz was about whether the candidates had their own websites and how this ‘new’ phenomenon would affect future campaigns. Eight years and a lifetime later, Fred Thompson’s media operations model is light years different . The result? He’s using YouTube and his blog to have a conversation with the American people. (continue reading post »)