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Martin 9/12 Calendar (& City of Stuart)

Thursday, September 19, 2013

SSN: Republicans Need Future-Looking Policies, not old Bromides

Republicans Need Future-Looking Policies, not old Bromides

By: MICHAEL BARONE | Posted: September 17, 2013 Barone

Republicans have been getting a lot of advice on how they should change their party ever since Mitt Romney's defeat in November 2012. They need it.

They are in more than the usual disarray that afflicts parties out of the White House. Many members of their majority in the House of Representatives are out of step with the Republican leadership on issues ranging from Syria to defunding Obamacare.

SSNThey have a clutch of presidential candidates who are little known nationally and take starkly different stands on issues. Any recent uptick in polls represents more a rejection of the Obama Democrats than an embrace of their opponents.

So Republicans would do well to listen to advice, even from unlikely political quarters and from the far corners of the earth. Two articles in the past week warrant attention, even though they seem to propose opposite courses.


Read the post at Sunshine State News...

Miami-Dade's GOP slaps down Common Core (takes stand against past chair, Jeb Bush)

Miami-Dade's GOP slaps down Common Core (takes stand against past chair, Jeb Bush)

Posted by Marc Caputo at 10:46 PM on Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2013

Miami-Dade’s Republican Party voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to oppose the Common Core education standards as an unconstitutional “inappropriate overreach” by the federal government.

thumbThe two-page resolution, part of a grassroots conservative revolt sweeping Florida and the nation, was partly a stand against President Obama as well as former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, who helped build the Miami-Dade Republican Party and chaired it in 1984.

Bush, the “education governor,” has recently been a leading voice advocating for Common Core, a series of standards that are new national benchmarks outlining what students should know at each grade level in each topic.

Common Core does not prescribe specific teaching methods and reading lists.

But in today’s world of conservative Republican politics, the distinction is blurred between Common Core standards and the curriculum to achieve those standards. For many, there is too much Obama and too much big government involved.


Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/09/miami-dades-gop-slaps-down-common-core-a-stand-against-past-chair-jeb-bush.html#storylink=cpy 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

An open letter to the Florida House and Senate

An open letter to the Florida House and Senate

ABOUT: COMMON CORE

Eric D. Miller ~ Ramblings and Musings - not everything is a conspiracy

To begin, since it is such a tin foil hat idea to some, let’s get past the argument that Common Core is somehow a conspiracy or planned implementation of a National Education Curriculum with Progressive undertones and motives. I can come over to your level for a bit to have the discussion. So let’s set the “fundamental transformation” aside for a bit. I will set my tin foil hat aside if you will open your heart for a frank discussion.

FCATLet’s start here. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush urged for more emphasis on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) results during his two terms in office.

But Bush isn’t mourning the end of the FCAT when a new Common Core State Standards — and tests — fully take effect in the fall of 2014.

Bush says FCAT was never meant to test whether students were ready for college or the job market. What?CCS

“The Common Core State Standards are higher; they’re fewer; they require more critical thinking skills,” Bush said, “and they will, unfortunately, at the beginning, they will probably show that close to two-thirds of our children are not college and career ready.


Read the rest of Eric Miller's letter...

Opinion: Keep elections open by ending write-in abuse

Keep elections open by ending write-in abuse

by Chuck Winn, Guest Columnist, The Stuart NewsChuckWinn

18 Sept. 2013

My greatest mistake in 11 years of political involvement was in organizing the 2008 Martin County write-in effort known as “Operation Iron Claw.” Our intentions were never to pull a last-minute gimmick to close the primary, but to stimulate two-party competition for local offices in the general election.

In fact, I even began personally informing key county Democrats seven months before the filing deadline that the primaries would be closed and urged them to recruit candidates for the November election.

My running mate Eric Miller and I also met with the Democratic chairman a month before the filing deadline, urging him to recruit a full slate of candidates. Our objectives were partially successful, because for the first time in 20 years all County Commission races were contested in November election, the way the process is supposed to work.

That certainly benefited the Republican Party because locals were forced to get out and pull for the entire ticket because they weren’t able to stop their heavy lifting after winning universal primaries open to all voters.

Unfortunately, I failed to consider that independents would be disenfranchised or that Democrats would not be able to recruit candidates for the offices of sheriff, school superintendent and tax collector.

My biggest regret however, is that I never considered that I would establish a precedent that abusive manipulators would exploit.

In 2010 the write-in was used as a last-minute gimmick exclusively for excluding Democratic and independent voters from one of the Martin County Commission races, but had no impact on the outcome.

However, in the 2012 primaries, this gimmick was used by supporters of three GOP primary candidates who managed to win with percentages in the low 40s.

The victorious sheriff’s candidate would have likely still won by a narrow margin. However the victors in the races for County Commission District 1 and House District 82 had limited appeal outside of the Republican Party base, and may very well have lost if those primaries had remained open.

My sincerest apologies go to all those voters who were disenfranchised because of the bad precedent I established in 2008.

The write-in tactic does not just hurt Democrats and independents, it also disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of Republicans when it is applied in Democratic-dominated metropolitan areas, as in the last Miami Dade state attorney’s race.

It is time for the public to demand a major legislative repair of this abuse during the 2014 session of the Florida Legislature.

Unaffiliated voters must be given the option of choosing a ballot for one of the two parties on primary day. Our Republican legislative leadership should recognize that the GOP cannot win general elections without support of independents.

Let me also remind fellow conservatives that most independents tend to break our way on economic and foreign policy issues and we cannot afford to alienate them by shutting them out of the process.

Party primary elections can and should still remain closed. This protects both parties from being “raided” by voters from the opposing party seeking to nominate the weakest opposition candidates.

The solution is to give the party executive committee shut out by a last minute write-in two extra weeks after the filing deadline an option of selecting a candidate to run in November. That’s good for both parties and good public policy.


Chuck Winn, Stuart, has been involved in numerous political campaigns for Republicans. In 2008, he ran for Martin County sheriff in the “Iron Claw” write-in effort.

 

Copyright © 2013 Scripps Media Inc. 09/18/2013

SSN: Pam Stewart Becomes New Commissioner of Education #tcot

Pam Stewart Becomes New Commissioner of Education

By: ALLISON NIELSEN | Posted: September 17, 2013

Pam Stewart will be taking over permanently as commissioner of education -- it's official. The state Board of Education unanimously approved her for the position in a meeting Tuesday in West Palm Beach.

Pam StewartTony Bennett resigned from his position six weeks ago after reports surfaced that he had changed the grade of a charter school in Indiana. Although Bennett denied any wrongdoing in the grade change, he stepped down as commissioner, saying it would be a distraction for the Florida Department of Education and the governor for him to remain.

Read the remaining story and the reference to Common Core Standards at Sunshine State News...

IN GOD WE TRUST

Friday, September 13, 2013

The Sikorski Plan

The Sikorski Plan

How the Polish Foreign Minister shaped a (possible) solution for Syria.

Globalist

A new urban legend is being spun. Before it takes hold for real, it’s high time for the truth to emerge in its full, splendid detail.

According to that legend, the Obama Administration reverted to the path of diplomacy on Syria only after a goofy remark by Secretary of State John Kerry in London about a possible way out of the crisis — if the Syrians came clean on their chemical weapons immediately.

SikorskiFat chance, Kerry added. But in reality, something else was going on. European forces had been at work getting the issue back on track, after the P-5 (the permanent members of the UN Security Council) had proven unable to do so.

Key in all this was the as-always deft handiwork of Radoslaw Sikorski, one of Europe’s most impressive and capable foreign ministers. Sikorski has now acknowledged his paternityregarding the plan now being negotiated in the UN Security Council.

But he did so only after I had broken the story in all its charming detail in my newspaper, Die Welt, this Tuesday. So here goes:

Read the article at The Globalist...

SSN: Marci Shatzman's Rude Awakening

Marci Shatzman's Rude Awakening
BY: NANCY SMITH | Posted: September 12, 2013 | http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/blog/marci-shatzmans-rude-awakening

Sometimes God is good to conservative journalists. Thank you, God, for Marci Shatzman.

Shatzman, a reporter for the Sun-Sentinel Forum Publishing Group and not a conservative journalist, was covering a meeting Tuesday night of the West Boca Community Council when featured speaker Andre Fladell tore into the media.

He doesn't like the media's use of cellphone cameras, doesn't like today's reporters who lack the judgment to discern real news before airing it, is convinced modern journalism is drowning out accuracy with its own ambition and irresponsibility.

And here was the big one: “Journalists have no respect for their own profession … no respect for their country,” Fladell said, calling them “self-serving" and "incompetent.”

Shatzman apparently couldn't take it anymore. The insults! The lies! How dare he? She leaped up from her chair and, as if on cue to prove Fladell right, angrily unleashed her disgust.

“I totally disagree – I’m a member of the press,” she shouted. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to this crap. I’m leaving.”

BizPac Review President Jack Furnari, another speaker, sat next to Fladell with a wry smile throughout. Somehow, he contained himself.

On the way out, Shatzman threatened a boycott of any more community council meetings that won’t get “one goddamned bit of coverage.”

Shatzman, sadly, is a microcosm of what's happened to my profession. Journalists of the 21st century, it seems to me, live in a bubble. Their view of the world is a conversation with each other. It breeds arrogance and deafness.

No wonder Marci Shatzman doesn't know or has forgotten that the same document that gives her license to write gives Fladell and anybody else the right to speak. And doesn't that make ours a great country?

At least now she's had a rude awakening and discovered there are people out there who think our profession deserves to be as battered and bloody as it is, that it's nowhere near living up to its high purpose, and that many of us who practice it are, well, despicable.

My advice to her is, next time, zip it up. Writers seldom do well when they open their mouths. Take your revenge on the commentary page (and on no other page).

Read the full story in BizPacReview by my pal, Joe Saunders. It's worth it. Don't forget to check out the video of the whole performance. Highly entertaining stuff.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Syria AUMF: It’s Not a Step in the Right Direction

by Michael Boldin on September 5, 2013 | SOURCE

In response to heavy public opposition to a unilateral executive war against Syria (yes, limited strikes on another country are certainly a “war in the legal sense), the Obama administration has given the appearance of a tip of the hat to Constitutional procedure by “seeking approval” from Congress.

I know quite a few people who, while still rightly opposed to intervention in Syria from a moral standpoint, have referred to this as “at least going in the right direction.”

I don’t.

In fact, beyond a temporary delay before the imperial president’s next foreign crime, this changes nothing.  It’s a band-aid, at best.

Here’s three reasons why.

1.  Dick, is that you?

The rhetoric coming from the “peace candidate” would have fit quite nicely anywhere in the Bush war years.  When Obama says he doesn’t actually need permission from Congress to wage war against another country, and that he “always reserves the right and responsibility to act,” it may-well have been the words of Dick Cheney.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

NEW JERSEY TEA PARTY CAUCUS ENDORSES MAYOR STEVE LONEGAN

Posted by TPATH - September 4, 2013

From TPATH:tpath

Mayor Steve Lonegan has proven beyond any doubt that he will never compromise his conservative values.  TPATH asks that everyone who cares about the direction of this country and that of New Jersey, please take the time to vote next month.  We ask you to download the PDF from the NJ TEA Party Caucus and pass it along to as many people as possible.  If this is not the most important election in the past 30 years, it would be a hard case to point to one that was. 

New Jersey may well decide control of the US Senate for the duration of Obomba's term.  Short of arresting him or impeaching him, preventing his further destruction of this country can only be accomplished by removing his ability to sign treaties with the United Nations and other enemies of America.

DOWNLOAD NEWS RELEASE IN .PDF

NOTE TO NEWS ORGANIZATIONS:
Once again we see the special rights provided for you in our Constitution being abused.  Several so called reporters have indicated they do not intend to post or print Press Releases which support Steve Lonegan.  One arrogant journalist claimed not to support the Tea Party movement and even requested to be removed from any future notifications.  This is the quintessence of arrogance and the disdain for ethics which has become the norm in your evanescent industry.
We have made it real easy to download this Press Release.  Its time you stopped ignoring half of your readers and maybe they will stop ignoring you.

A Final Observation:

Not just for that counterfeit journalist up in Hudson County who claimed not to support the Tea Party, but for all the others, secretly or overtly, harboring those same feelings, here, despite what you may think you know about the Tea Party, are a few of the things, by not supporting that movement, you also do not support:

  1. Abiding by the United States Constitution.  All of it.  Not just the convenient parts.
  2. Politicians who serve the people and not their personal bank accounts.
  3. Preventing the Federal Reserve from printing the US Dollar into oblivion.
  4. Sending tax payer dollars to Islamic terrorists such as The Muslim Brotherhood.
  5. Halting this executive branch, or any executive branch from writing laws via the Executive Order.
  6. Stopping the use our Military in support of Al Qaeda and other murderers of the American people.
  7. Ceasing the uncontrolled spending which has the debt to over $17 trillion, which our children must repay.
  8. Ending the government's use of the NSA data base to intimidate and extort politicians, Federal judges, Supreme Court justices, news organizations and, oh yes, journalists.
  9. Slowing down the dependency rate of those enslaved by government handouts.
  10. Improving America's ability to become energy independent and thereby stop sending our money to terrorist countries and organizations that want us dead.

Since the bulk of the mainstream media do not support the above, the question has to be, "What the heck do you support?”

Disclaimer:
TPATH has posted the Press Release herewith in service to New Jersey voters.  Be advised that the comments included herewith are solely those of TPATH and may or may not be condoned by the NJ TEA Party Coalition.


The Martin 9/12 Committee urges all of our members who know voters in New Jersey to call those voters about Steve Lonegan. There is no better use for your contributions this year than the Lonegan Campaign. His opponent, Cory Booker, is collecting Progressive money from Hollywood to Moscow. There is a good chance that New Jersey voters are fed up with the leftist promises and the lack of character in the Democrat Party and that could translate into a Lonegan win. Remember – this is a “special election” (on a Wednesday) and the only way for the opposition to get a good turnout is to pay for it.

jjm/m912tc

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Cindy speaks on the Doc Thompson Show on TheBlaze.com Sept. 03

SOUTH CAROLINA TEA PARTIERS DRAFT RESOLUTION TO REPLACE LINDSEY GRAHAM #tcot

SOUTH CAROLINA TEA PARTIERS DRAFT RESOLUTION TO REPLACE LINDSEY GRAHAM

by MATTHEW BOYLE | 2 Sep 2013Graham

SPARTANBURG -- South Carolina Tea Party groups have drafted a resolution containing a 29-point case to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with a Senator who is more conservative, Breitbart News has learned.

Local Tea Party leaders provided the document, a resolution that can be passed by local and state GOP committees, to Breitbart News. It argues that Graham’s activities in the U.S. Senate are a violation of the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party platform. Graham is up for reelection next year. 

Items highlighted by Tea Partiers include: Graham’s support of providing weapons to “Al Quaeda / Muslim Brotherhood Revolutionaries in Syria,” how Graham “[s]upported amnesty but not border control,” how he supported “NSA spying on private American citizens,” “abridging the First Amendment for those who criticize the government,” “restrictions on the Second Amendment,” “Obama's drone program against American citizens,” “subordinating American sovereignty to the United Nations,” “giving foreign aid to terrorist governments in the Middle East,” “granting members of the Muslim Brotherhood high level positions in the US government,” “giving taxpayer money to international organizations,” “giving taxpayer money for excessive foreign aid generally, not just to terrorist governments in the Middle East,” “restricting the First Amendment rights to criticize Islamic radicalism,” “Obama's radical appointments to the Supreme Court,” “liberal proposal to nationalize banks,” “Obama's energy taxes and Cap and Trade,” “bailouts for financial institutions (TARP),” and “bailouts for independent mortgage institutions (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).” 

Read more at Breitbart...

Monday, September 2, 2013

SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY GOP CENSURES SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM

3 weeks ago | US | Posted by Joshua Cookimage

August 12, 2013

Tonight at the regular monthly meeting of the Chesterfield County Republican Party, members utilized a roll call vote to pass a 29-point resolution in favor of censuring one of the current United States Senators from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham.

The yeas carried the evening with 98% of the vote. This reflects the continued frustration of many in the party with officials who are elected as Republicans and then seem to forget the doctrine of the party when they assume office.

Read the article from bswann.com…

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE CENSURE OF LINDSEY GRAHAM - CHESTERFIELD CO

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