WASHINGTON D.C -- The Federal Government is being accused of renting office space from a mosque that allegedly supports terrorism. The blogosphere has erupted. Some in Congress want to order an investigation. Channel Two's Scott McFarlane investigated these allegations and you might be surprised by what he found.
The U.S. Census is leasing a 6,600 square-foot corner of an old, back-road building in Virginia. Land records that Channel Two obtained confirmed that this location is owned by the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center and rented by the Census Bureau.
Stephen Landman, of the Investigative Project on Terror, said, "Before there is a contract signed, they should know who they're dealing with."
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik showed McFarlane around the worship area and even acknowledged that Dal Al-Hijrah is not a typical Islamic center. It has been a hotbed of controversy. Its worshipers have included two of the Sept. 11th hijackers and Nadal Hassan, the man believed responsible for the massacre at Fort Hood. Most alarming to critics is its former Imam, Anwar Al-Awlaki.
Al-Awlaki is now considered a leading terrorist recruiter and is believed to have plotted with the would-be underwear-bomber and the Times Square bomber. Now he is a wanted man by U.S authorities and is on the loose in Yemen, U.S officials believe.
"If you have one branch of government saying this is a terrorist organization and another branch giving them a half-million dollars a year, there is a disconnect here," said Landman.
It wasn’t too long ago that ACORN, the liberal activist organization, was exposed for fraudulently registering the entire Dallas Cowboys football team in Nevada in time for the 2008 election. As Democrats desperately try to hold onto seats in the House and Senate, and governorships in 37 states, liberal organizations are stepping up their voter fraud campaign. Their new target is the fourth largest city in the country, and the economic heart of the Lone Star State — Houston.
On Tuesday, Harris County Tax Assessor Collector Leo Vasquez, who is in charge of voting registration in Houston’s encompassing county, accused Houston Votes and the Texans Together Education Fund of an organized voter fraud campaign. Houston Votes submitted more than 25,000 applications in recent months wrought with disturbing irregularities, including addresses that didn’t exist, non-citizens seeking to register, and cases where up to six applications were submitted for the same person.
Vasquez said that the integrity of the voter rolls in the Houston area, “appears to be under an organized and systematic attack,” by Houston Votes, the voter registration arm of Texans Together, whose board of directors is stocked full of Democrats.
The board includes Cris Feldman, one of the lawyers who brought a civil suit against Tom Delay’s TRMPAC; James Aldrete, a veteran Democrat operative who consulted for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign; and Andres Pereira, a mass torts trial attorney in Houston who has given thousands of dollars to Democrats, and was a 2008 candidate for a judicial position in Houston.
Although Texans Together claims to be non-partisan, their liberal ties run deep, and the organization’s efforts to register more than 600,000 new voters in the Houston area by November now comes under great scrutiny, after so many irregularities were found in this recent batch of applications.
Much of the research that uncovered these gross irregularities in the voter rolls was done by a citizen’s watchdog group called True the Vote. They began their investigation by looking at households where six or more voters resided. That’s how they stumbled upon what is perhaps the most troubling discovery — an instance where as many as six people where registered at an address that is nothing more than a vacant lot.
Texans Together, like other liberal voter registration organizations caught participating in voter fraud, claims that it had no knowledge of the invalid applications, and the group’s President Fred Lewis was quick to say efforts to review and clean up these rolls are simply Republicans trying to suppress voter registration. Lewis also said he would appeal to Obama’s Justice Department in Washington. “We need to have the Justice Department come in and see what Mickey Mouse stuff he and his office are doing to suppress people.”
Fraudulent voters may play a key role in November’s elections. Besides Democrat congressional seats in Texas, the state is also holding contests for state-wide offices, and battling for control of a closely divided State House. Chief among these elections is the battle for Texas Governor, between Republican Governor Rick Perry and the Democrat Bill White. White, a former Houston mayor, comes from the very county where this massive voter fraud is taking place, and could gain the most from these suspect voters.
As Democrats reach new levels of desperation, efforts to defraud genuine American citizens of their right to fair and free elections seem to be in their cross-hairs. Winning elections at all costs requires that groups like ACORN and Texans Together prey on that shortcomings of Voter ID laws in hopes of fraudulently swinging elections in their favor.
In a country where you have to provide a valid ID to drive, fly or even enjoy a beer, it’s astounding that in most states you are not required to do the same to vote. Evidence like this shows that this failure of the system will continue to be exploited in the interests of those who stand to benefit.
The following should be required by ALL states in order for ANYONE to cast a ballot. Any elected official that is in opposition to these simple, yet necessary requirements, needs to be voted out of office. Until we take the voting process seriously, we are exposing it to rampant voter fraud. Thus, any elected official that will NOT support these requirements must be a supporter of voter fraud.
***We must also make the crime of voter fraud a felony with a hefty prison sentence along with a hefty crime. The way it stands now, in Texas, if you are arrested for voter fraud, your sentence is likely to be the equivalent of a shoplifting conviction. THAT IS A TRAVESTY!
It is incumbent upon all of us to lobby our Senators and Representatives in order to get them to implement these simple requirements and protect the integrity of our votes.
Voter registration: A photo ID and proof of citizenship should be required to register to vote.
The registration period should end at least one week before an election.
States should be required to clean up their registration lists by comparing them with lists of citizens who have died, been convicted of felonies, or relocated. State election officials should be permitted to set up centralized national lists of such individuals. Federal immigration lists of non-citizens should be made available to the states.
Felons should not be permitted to register or vote before completing their sentences.
Absentee voting:
The use of absentee ballots should be limited to individuals who are unable to vote in person, including those who are ill or disabled, and soldiers stationed overseas. A copy of a photo ID should be submitted along with all absentee ballots. The signatures on absentee ballots should either be notarized or witnessed by two other individuals who provide their own addresses and telephone numbers. The number of voter signatures any one individual is permitted to witness should be limited. Only voters, immediate family members and caregivers should be allowed to deliver absentee ballots on behalf of voters.
Provisional ballots:
The use of provisional ballots should be limited to voters who actually need them. Provisional voters should affirm that they are registered and eligible to vote, and display a photo ID to the election official, who then verifies eligibility at the central registration office. Voters who are at the wrong polling place should be sent to the correct one.
Voting at a polling place:
A photo ID and proof of citizenship should be required to vote.
Election monitoring and sanctions for fraud:
Non-partisan groups should be permitted to appoint poll watchers.
State officials should be given greater powers to investigate election abuses.
Individuals who commit vote fraud should be routinely prosecuted, fined, and jailed. At present, such prosecutions are infrequent and jail sentences are almost non-existent.
Is vote fraud a serious problem in America? Let’s look at where we are today, and how we got here.
Opening the door to fraud
In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the “Motor Voter” law. Its stated goal was to increase voter registration and participation in Federal elections while safeguarding the integrity of the process and ensuring “accurate and clean” registration rolls. Motor Voter required motor vehicle departments, welfare offices, and other government agencies to provide forms and register voters, made it illegal to check the IDs of applicants, and ordered states to allow registration by mail.
This opened the door to a massive increase in fraudulent registrations. Motor Voter made it possible for someone to register under several false names, request an absentee ballot for each, and cast multiple votes with little chance of being detected. John Fund reported in his book Stealing Elections that the number of registered voters in Philadelphia increased by 24% from 1995 to 2004, even as the city’s population declined by 13%.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) required those who register by mail to show an ID when casting their first vote, but this did nothing to address invalid registrations already on the books. Also, many states permit first-time registrants to avoid the ID requirement by turning in their forms directly to election officials. A 2009 study estimated that US registration rolls contain more than 16 million invalid voters.
According to Fund and other experts, most widespread vote fraud occurs in large cities controlled by the Democratic Party. It comes as no surprise that Democrats frequently attack efforts to reduce fraud as civil rights violations or vote suppression, and consistently oppose efforts to require citizens to show identification in order to vote.
A recent poll found that 82% of Americans think a photo ID should be required to vote. However, only 25 states ask for any form of identification. A photo ID is required by just seven.
A PowerPoint presentation available at ElectionCenter.org describes new legislation Congressional Democrats are pursuing to increase Federal control over elections. Among the proposals: eliminating voter ID requirements, national voting rights for felons (who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats), Federal voter registration, mandatory availability of registration on Election Day and availability of absentee ballots to all voters. There is little doubt that such measures would make it much easier to commit fraud.
Non-citizens who vote
Many non-citizens use easily-obtained voter registrations to acquire other documents identifying them as U.S. citizens, along with other benefits such as social security and even government jobs. According to a recent Heritage Foundation study:
There is no systematic review of voter registration rolls by states to find non-citizens, and the relevant federal agencies – in direct violation of federal law – refuse to cooperate with state election officials seeking to verify the citizenship status of registered voters.
Local officials in several states who tried to remove felons and non-citizens from the registration rolls have also been sued by leftist groups alleging civil rights violations.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office found in 2005 that up to 3 percent of the 30,000 individuals called for jury duty from voter registration rolls in one U.S. district court were not U.S. citizens.
Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt told Congress in 2006 that the extent of illegal voting by foreign citizens in Harris County, Texas was impossible to determine but that it “has and will continue to occur.” Bettencourt observed that 22% of county residents were born outside of the U. S., and more than 500,000 were non-citizens.
SEIU International Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina recently stated that granting amnesty to non-citizens (“immigration reform”) could add 8 million new Democratic voters.
Voting early and often – the risks of early and absentee voting
The bipartisan 2001 National Commission on Election Reform found the increased use of absentee ballots and early voting inconsistent with five key objectives of fair elections:
Assure the privacy of the secret ballot and protection against coerced voting
Verify that only duly registered voters cast ballots
Safeguard ballots against loss or alteration
Assure their prompt counting
Foster the communal aspects of citizens voting together
Nevertheless, those trends have continued unabated. Large-scale absentee voting also creates delays in deciding elections – delays that offer additional opportunities for fraud.
“No excuses” early voting (voting early without having to provide a reason) is now allowed by 36 states, and often begins as early as 45 days before the actual election.
Experts view absentee ballots as the largest single source of fraudulent voting. For an excellent case study of how this works in practice, see A Stolen Election in Greene County, Alabama. Author Hans von Spakovsky describes the typical procedure:
The conspirator applies for an absentee ballot by forging a voter’s signature on the application or obtaining the signature through coercion, trickery, or bribery.
The election official mails the absentee ballot and voter affidavit to the address listed on the application, either a real address or one controlled by the conspirator.
Election officials usually post the names of voters who were sent absentee ballots and the dates they were mailed, making it easy for the conspirator to intercept them. Ballots may be also sent to addresses controlled by the conspirator.
The conspirator completes the absentee ballot and forges the voter’s signature, or else the voter signs and completes the ballot as directed by the conspirator.
The conspirator then mails or hand-delivers the ballot to the election official.
Manufacturing an election crisis
The changes that are making our election system less manageable, less accountable, and more vulnerable to fraud did not come about by accident.
Leftists in Washington have used the financial crisis to nationalize General Motors, the mortgage industry, and much of the banking system, and are working diligently to socialize and redistribute health care services. Now they are preparing “solutions” to the election crisis they themselves created. Read what the Los Angeles Times has to say about universal voter registration. Notice how the article frames the new proposal as “putting
ACORN out of business” but ignores its vast potential for new fraud.
As Simpson points out, the Universal Registration scheme is entirely consistent with the Cloward/Piven strategy of manufactured crisis, which seeks to undermine government institutions by overwhelming them with demands for services. The goal is to achieve a socialist state that will redistribute the nation’s wealth.
ACORN was specifically created to execute this strategy, targeting our elections through its voter mobilization arm, Project Vote. Cloward and Piven themselves were long-time proponents of the 1993 Motor Voter Act, and joined President Clinton on the podium for the signing ceremony. Early in 2010, Frances Fox Piven joined the Project Vote Board of Directors.
Author Richard Poe writes:
The stated purpose of Project Vote is to work within the system, using conventional voter-mobilization drives and litigation to secure the rights of minority and low-income voters under the U.S. Constitution. However, Project Vote’s actions suggest that its true agenda is more radical. Its activities appear to be aimed at overwhelming, paralyzing and discrediting the voting system through fraud, protests, propaganda and vexatious litigation.
During the 2008 election, members of the New Black Panther Party stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia, waving nightsticks and threatening elderly voters. The Department of Justice filed suit against the group, but then abruptly dismissed all charges, despite the fact that the blatant acts of intimidation had clearly violated the Voting Rights Act.
Internal DOJ memos and news reports revealed that career attorneys in the Voting Section who were working on the case were overruled by Obama political appointees.
Advocates for clean elections should expect little help from the Obama Administration.
Buying the referee – the Secretary of State Project
The Secretary of State Project was created in 2006 by the Democracy Alliance, a 527 non-profit organization funded by anti-capitalist billionaire George Soros that has given out more than $100 million to leftist groups, including ACORN. SoSP was formed to place Democrats in crucial Secretary of State jobs that oversee elections in swing states. Races for these jobs are little-noticed and lightly funded, and significant infusions of SoSP cash played a key role in electing Democrats in Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio in 2006 and in Missouri, Montana, Oregon and West Virginia in 2008.
SoSP Secretary Jennifer Brunner quickly made her presence known, ruling in 2008 that Ohio residents must be allowed to register and vote on the same day during early voting. She tried, unsuccessfully, to invalidate a million Republican absentee ballots over a triviality, and also refused to provide county election boards with a list of 200,000 registration forms in which the name did not match the driver’s license or Social Security number.
Minnesota’s fraudulent Senator
Years of leftist planning and effort all came together in 2008 in Minnesota, where the nation’s closest statewide election pitted Democrat Al Franken against Republican incumbent Senator Norm Coleman. Presiding over the election was SoSP Secretary Mark Ritchie, whose extensive ties to ACORN wereignored by the media. Immediately after taking office, Ritchie took steps to dismantle the ballot reconciliation program set in place by his predecessor, making it impossible to validate the number of ballots issued against the number of votes cast. Shortly before the election, Ritchie was to investigate serious problems found in the registration rolls, including 261,000 duplicate registrations and 63,000 voters who had listed non-existent addresses. He dismissed the request as an attempt “to create a cloud over an election so people don’t accept the outcome.” After the polls closed, Secretary Ritchie reported that his office “received no reports whatsoever of fraudulent voting occurring.”
The final vote showed Republican Coleman with a narrow 725 vote victory. It wasn’t enough. Over the next 4 days, his lead fell to 221 as officials “discovered” errors in the vote. Most came from three small precincts controlled by Democrats, and nearly all the reported errors helped Franken. Other irregularities included “misplaced” ballots turning up in an official’s trunk and vote total errors that affected only the Senate race.
The process continued during the official recount, as the Minnesota Canvassing Board discovered just enough “ballot errors” to narrowly put Franken in the Senate. Author John Lott analyzed some of the Board’sinconsistent decisions, nearly all of which favored the Democratic candidate.
After the election, outside investigators checked voting records against criminal records and found that 1,400 convicted felons had voted illegally. Incredibly, 17,000 more ballots were tallied in the Senate race than there were actual voters.
The Secretary of State Project plans to support Ritchie again in 2010, obviously pleased at his handling of what the group calls “a scrupulously fair and transparent election recount.”
What’s next?
Clearly, there is work to be done. The problem is serious, systemic, and getting worse.
The solution is for ordinary citizens who care about honest elections to get involved, right where they live.
The ongoing corruption of our elections exists for a variety of reasons, including:
A lack of citizen awareness, involvement, and adequate training
Federal legislation limiting how states and localities can detect and prevent fraud
Inefficient and ineffective election processes at the state and county levels
Advocacy groups pushing “reforms” that increase the opportunities for abuses
Unwillingness on the part of officials to preempt fraud and prosecute abusers
We intend to address these problems through the following initiatives:
Mobilizing and training volunteers who are willing to work as election monitors
Aggressively pursuing fraud reports to ensure prosecution when appropriate
Providing a support system for our volunteers that includes live and online training, quick reference guides, a call bank to phone in problem reports, information on videotaping at polling places, and security as necessary
Creating documentaries and instructional videos for use in recruiting and training
Raising awareness of the problem through strategic outreach efforts including advertising, social networking, media relations, and relational marketing
Voter registration programs and efforts to validate existing registration lists, including the use of pattern recognition software to detect problem areas
Harris County, Texas is the second largest voting block in the nation, and the shortfall of conservative poll workers here is staggering. There are more than 1,200 open poll worker positions – and this is typical of the situation in many large cities. Unmonitored elections invite fraud. Unless we are willing to take action, we are effectively complicit in the corruption that begins at the ballot box and rises to the highest levels of government.
Check out their website and donate your time or money to help them in their endeavor of protecting our votes: True The Vote
As Joseph Stalin said: "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
A non-partisan grassroots watchdog group called "True the Vote" has released its report on the 2008 elections in Houston, Texas, in which it found that the process was absolutely buried under an avalanche of coordinated partisan corruption and voter fraud.
From one of the group's founders, Catherine Engelbrecht: “What we saw shocked us. There was no one checking IDs, judges would vote for people that asked for help. It was fraud, and we watched like deer in the headlights... ...The first thing we started to do was look at houses with more than six voters in them [a common red flag for voter fraud]...Vacant lots had several voters registered on them. An eight-bed halfway house had more than 40 voters registered at its address. We then decided to look at who was registering the voters."
Their report, which unsurprisingly found that SEIU was at the center of the voter fraud operation, is now being reviewed by the Texas secretary of state's office and by the Harris County district attorney for possible prosecution.
"Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid. The other registrations included one of a woman who registered six times in the same day; registrations of non-citizens; so many applications from one Houston Voters collector in one day that it was deemed to be beyond human capability; and 1,597 registrations that named the same person multiple times, often with different signatures."
So not only did we have armed Black Panthers openly intimidating voters at the polls with impunity during this election, but also a blatantly stolen election in Minnesota and extensive evidence of widespread Democrat attacks on the process in Texas.
Again, welcome to "transparency" and "the change we need."
Fox News Reporting investigated the $10 billion dollar-a-year textbook industry and how the drive to be politically correct might be taking over American schools.
Host Tucker Carlson, asked experts, teachers, publishers and parents the same question: "Do you know what is inside your children's textbooks?" From kindergarten through college, we found staggering errors and omissions which may be pushing agendas, hidden and otherwise.
We spoke to the author of "The Language Police," education historian Diane Ravitch, who said textbook publishers censor images or words they deem to be controversial in children's textbooks. She told us that publishers pander to special interest groups, and assemble bias and sensitivity review committees. These committees decide what words to ban or redefine, and even what images are deemed offensive.
And we examined some college textbooks both in print and in digital forms. We found a glaring mistake in an expensive history book written by Alan Brinkley, Provost at New York's Columbia University.
And in Fairfax County Virginia, questions remain about what textbooks are used in the private Islamic Saudi Academy. The ISA teaches about 1000 students each year pre-K — 12. Questions have been raised about its textbooks at least since 2006.
This summer, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, ISA's 1999 valedictorian, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 2002 Al Qaeda plot to assassinate President George W. Bush.
The ISA is wholly owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and teaches students from textbooks, which according to a report by a Saudi scholar interviewed by Fox News, continues to "propagate an ideology of hate to the unbeliever." Fox News Reporting obtained some of their current 2008-2009 textbooks which were supposed to be purged of inflammatory language. We found proof otherwise.
We tracked down two American college professors who were paid by the ISA to review these textbooks. They signed a letter obtained by Fox News that the ISA's 2008-2009 textbooks "do not contain inflammatory material…" One of them sat down for an interview; the other refused.
And in California's Alameda County, our cameras were there as parents were embroiled in a heated debate over a mandatory curriculum designed to teach students from grades K-5 about different types of families, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lifestyles. After a vote by the Alameda Unified School District in May of this year, the second grade reading curriculum now requires a book about gay penguins.
Fox News Reporting examines what is really inside children's textbooks.
America's ultimate natural resource is its children. And when it comes to education — from the elementary level to college — our nation finds itself at a turning point. Education is the key to success in American life, but after decades of reforms and counter-reforms, what have we really learned?
Since 1980, the federal government has spent more than a trillion dollars on public schools in this country. Yet, the United States doesn't make the global top ten list when it comes to literacy and has a high school dropout rate approaching 30 percent.
In 2009, Fox News Reporting dove into the world of textbooks and asked if you knew what your children were really reading. Now, in this second hour, Fox News brings you a snapshot of what's happening in classrooms today — what's being tried, what's being scrapped, and what the final grade could be. As in our first hour, the three major publishers that dominate the $9.5 billion textbook industry — McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — again declined our interview requests.
The Fox News Reporting team visited seven states and the nation's capital over the span of five months to research and interview 30 individuals. Featured are interviews with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, mother of five and Fox News contributor Sarah Palin. You'll also hear from high school and college students, parents, current and retired teachers, school administrators, education experts and college professors.
Host Tucker Carlson will guide you through some of the current bureaucratic maze facing parents and children. These include:
• Standards-based achievement levels created in President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind
• President Obama's educational reforms as part of his Race to the Top
standards in Texas and what effect it may have in textbooks used across the country for years to come. Plus, the mistake found by a fifth grader in his history book about the Declaration of Independence
• The challenge of teacher evaluation, tenure and the teacher unions
• Charter schools and school choice
• The nationwide domino effect of restructuring and closing low performing schools like Fremont High in South Central Los Angeles
• The new and controversial trend of teachers selling lesson plans online via websites including TeachersPayTeachers.com and WeAreTeachers.com
• Project-based learning at the New Tech Network taking place in 40 schools across nine states
• Flocabulary — using rap music to teach English, history, science and even math
• The out of control, skyrocketing cost of attaining a college degree
Fox News Reporting dials in on American education as it stands at the crossroads. Shoddy schools, bad teachers who can't be fired and ineffective bureaucracy are partly to blame as the U.S. lags behind much of the developed world in basic reading, math and science.
It is simply a must read if you have any interest in the subject or are outraged at the continued abuse of our country by those who hold no allegiance to it.
Some of you may think that you are quite familiar with birthright citizenship and the reasons and methods that it was implemented, but I learned quite a bit that I wasn't aware of and I'm sure you will as well.
The report goes over the thoughts of those who put together the 14th amendment, how it has been distorted by the other side and does a global comparison of countries that continue to grant birthright citizenship. It also delves into scholars and judges opinions of the issues.
Exploitation of our citizenship and the methods that are used are covered, from "temporary guest workers" who have a child while here and then just overstay their visas to outright fraud in the reasoning for coming here in a ploy called "birth tourism". The ploy isn't even hidden, but openly advertised and our country does nothing to combat it. Package deals are put together including flight, hotels, birth of babies on US soil for citizenship and in some cases even shopping trips and tours - all under the guise of a tourist visa. All of this for just a few thousand dollars.
Chain migration is also examined and the gaming of our welfare, education and food stamp programs.
The best part of the report is that it provides a solution; It doesn't just point out the problem. It delves into the improbability of a constitutional amendment and points out that all can be clarified by congress itself, if the damn of the people and will is there.
HOW MANY FIELD TRIPS HAVE BEEN TAKEN TO A CHRISTIAN CHURCH
OR JEWISH SYNAGOGUE?
Yesterday, Americans for Peace and Tolerance released a video showing 6th graders from Wellesley, MA as they rise from prostrating themselves alongside Muslim men in a prayer to Allah while on a public school field trip to the largest mosque in the Northeast. Teachers did not intervene. Parents have not been told.
Taken from their website:
The video was taken inside the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center – Boston’s controversial Saudi-funded mega-mosque – during a Wellesley Middle School social studies trip to the mosque, ostensibly taken to learn about the history of Islam first-hand. Yet the video reveals that the students are being blatantly mis-educated about Islam. A mosque spokesperson is seen teaching the children that in Mohammed’s 7th century Arabia women were allowed to vote, while in America women only gained that right a hundred years ago. This seems to be an increasingly recurring theme in American schools – the denigration of western civilization and the glorification of Islamic history and values. In fact, just recently, the American Textbook Council revealed that the New York State high school regents exam whitewashes the atrocities that occurred during the imperialistic Islamic conquest of Christian Byzantium, Persia, the African continent, and the Indian subcontinent, even as it demonizes European colonialism in South America.
The mosque spokesperson also taught the students that the only meaning of Jihad in Islam is a personal spiritual struggle, and that Jihad has historically had no relationship with holy war. As far as we know, the school has not corrected these false lessons.
For the past three years we’ve been sounding the alarm about the radical leadership and Saudi funding of the Boston mega-mosque and the organization that runs it, the Muslim American Society, which has been labeled by Federal prosecutors as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”
The Islamic Society of Boston was founded by Abdulrahman Alamoudi, who is currently serving 23 years in jail on terror charges. For years, its board of trustees included Yusuf al Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who was banned by Bill Clinton from the United States in 1999. Qaradawi now chairs the Muslim American Society’s university, which offers classes inside the mosque. Over half the mosque’s $15.5 million price tag was funded by wealthy Saudis and since it opened, several of its leaders, donors and members have been implicated in Islamic extremism.
Oussama Ziade, a big donor to the mosque, is now a fugitive in Lebanon after being indicted in 2009 for dealing in the assets of an Al Qaeda financier. Ahmad Abousamra, the son of the Boston Muslim American Society’s former vice-president Abdulbadi Abousamra, is now a fugitive in Syria, fleeing the country before being indicted in 2009 on charges of aiding Al Qaeda. One of the mosque’s imams, Abdullah Faaruuq, was captured on tape in 2010 telling followers to “pick up the gun and the sword” and to defend another local terrorist Aafia Siddiqui from the U.S. government. Siddiqui, who was one of the imam’s congregants, is an MIT graduate and Al Qaeda memberawaiting sentencing for attempting to murder FBI agents in Afghanistan while shouting “death to America.”
The mosque leadership continues to be embraced by top Massachusetts political and religious leaders. These include Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, as well as a group of local progressive rabbis and Christian clergy, who all insist despite evidence to the contrary that the mosque is moderate and its critics are just bigots.
Indeed, this is a familiar refrain by leaders nationwide in response to the increasing public realization that Islamic leaders are not as moderate as they present themselves. Radicalism is growing and many moderate Muslims have been silenced. In various parts of the country, public schools are allowing Muslim extremists to promote Islam to our children. Something’s broken here. Our leadership is failing. It’s now up to ordinary citizens to fix it.
The video, released by Americans for Peace and Tolerance reveals, among other things, students participating in Muslim prayer—and not a single teacher objecting or trying to stop it!
Brigitte Gabriel has been warning Americans about inappropriate and potentially unlawful activities that promote Islam in our public schools. Last December we told you about a furor that erupted in an Indiana elementary school where students were being prepped to sing a song praising Allah during the “winter festival.”
Check out this important video highlight the who's who of the Boston Islamic Society.
On May 22nd, Massachusetts Governor Patrick embraced the radical leadership of the Muslim American Society (MAS), including Imam Abdullah Faarooq who told followers they must "pick up the gun and the sword" in response to the arrests of local Islamic extremist Aafia Siddiqui and terror suspect Tarek Mehanna. Full sermon by Imam Faaruuq is available here: http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/29378193
School Apologizes After Students Pray to Allah on Field Trip to Mosque
By Todd Starnes
Published September 17, 2010
| FoxNews.com
A Massachusetts school district has apologized to parents after a group of schoolchildren participated in midday Muslim prayers during a field trip to a Boston-area mosque.
The incident occurred in May when a social studies class from Wellesley Middle School toured the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, one of the largest mosques in the Northeast.
Parents were told their children would be learning about the architecture of a mosque and they would be allowed to observe a prayer service. But the students wound up being given a lecture on the Prophet Muhammad, and some boys participated in a midday prayer service.
The field trip was videotaped by a parent whose child was on the trip. At one point, the video shows a spokeswoman for the mosque telling students, “You have to believe in Allah, and Allah is the one God, the only one worthy of worship, all forgiving, all merciful."
Attorney Rob Meltzer represents the parent, who asked not to be identified. He’s launched an investigation into the incident and says he may consider filing a lawsuit or complaint against the school district.
I was told by the college campus to contact Dr. Grace Truman @ 561-868-3122. I called today and she was out of the office but I did leave my comments with her assistant, Sue Rathbone. Her response to my call to have Ms. Ford-Morris fired was that it was under review and that, at this point, they had not received any evidence from the students as to the allegations that Mrs. Ford-Morris had been contacted in July regarding their request to set up a club and that she did approve it. I will be sending a tweet to Daniel Hernandez to let him know to contact them.
The following is the "Vision" statement on their website:
Vision
"We envision a College of diverse, active learners engaged in intellectual, social and personal growth that enriches and transforms our community."
Obviously, Mrs. Ford-Morris needs a refresher course on diversity...it seems that the left wants diversity when it fits the lefts agenda but wants to silence diversity from the right or conservatives.
Contact Olivia Ford-Morris, her college email is morriso@palmbeachstate.edu her telephone # is 561-868-3310 and the dean of student services ~Penny McIsaac (561) 868-305 Mcisaacp@palmbeachstate.edu
By now you have heard of her. The 10-year-old dynamo soprano opera singer is a bonafide show-stopper, and this week's performance only heightened that legacy. Her talent is in fact so off-the-charts, that some people have even said her voice is a mechanical fluke. Others have gone so far as to even imbue her with religious titles, saying that she is an angel sent to earth. Would angels really flock to "America's Got Talent"? Judge for yourself.
This simple phrase, added to the pledge of allegiance over 50 years ago has been the source of unbelievable debate and heated controversy. Likewise, the phrase 'In God We Trust' on our currency has been targeted and continues to be attacked as improper and politically incorrect. Lawsuits have been filed and legal minds employed to ascertain whether such statements violate the concept of 'separation of church and state'.
As this debate continues, some so called experts have implied or concluded that our Founding Fathers and Patriots were not religious. These secular champions, in an effort to further their own causes, have even painted these great men and women from our history as being devoid of religious passions or even a belief in God. This is a part of their strategy to remove any discussion of God from the public forum.
These men and women were passionately religious and saw the hand of God all around them. To God they gave Thanks for His Hand in the founding of this great nation. To Him, according to their own testimony they turned for wisdom and strength when life and liberty hung in the balance. Certainly the debate on separation of church and state will continue. But no one can dispute how our Founding Fathers and Patriots felt about God. The record is clear!
'One Nation Under God' is Jon McNaughton's witness and reminder that those who went before us knew from whence their blessings came!
It is 2008 all over again. Today the Department of Justice effectively rewrote the 2009 MOVE Act designed to protect military voters. In a settlement reached with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the Holder Justice Department allowed Wisconsin to mail ballots to overseas military voters only 32 days before the election, instead of the statutorily mandated 45 days.
Once again, it is no accident this embarrassing settlement is being released on a Friday, so fewer might notice.
The Pentagon had denied Wisconsin’s application for a waiver from the 45-day requirement: “The states granted waivers presented thorough and comprehensive plans to protect the voting opportunities for military and overseas voters,” Bob Carey, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, said in a statement. Wisconsin’s waiver application didn’t even come close to compliance with the MOVE Act. They wanted to send ballots only 29 days before the election. The folks at the Pentagon rightfully denied the waiver request.
The victory for military voters was short-lived.
Instead of aggressively suing Wisconsin immediately after the waiver denial, the DOJ engaged in secret negotiations. An immediate lawsuit would have strengthened the negotiating position of the DOJ as well as preserved various equitable legal arguments, including the argument DOJ waited too long to commence litigation. Instead of doing the right thing, the DOJ did the easy thing and reached a settlement with Wisconsin that undermined the Pentagon’s denial of Wisconsin’s waiver request.
The tough negotiating stance of the Holder DOJ extracted a whopping additional three days out of Wisconsin. Ballots will mail 32 days before the election instead of 29. A consent decree filed Friday will reflect this quisling agreement.
This is a disgrace, plain and simple. Military voters, their families and veterans organizations should be outraged at the Holder DOJ.
It is true that time was added to allow ballots to roll in after the election, but time after the election is different in quality than time before. The MOVE Act was explicitly designed to add time before an election to ensure the solider would get a ballot in time to benefit from the express delivery requirement under the MOVE Act. This guarantees that ballots placed in military mail at least 7 days before an election will be returned in time to be counted. By sending ballots only 32 days before the election, many overseas soldiers will be denied this important guarantee.
Congress specifically rejected post-election add-on time as a solution. Compressing the pre-election time ignores both of these important statutory purposes.
The limp DOJ settlement demonstrates a core fear inside Justice of litigating military voting cases. Even when the DOJ actually acts to protect military voters, the investigative methods resemble the Keystone Cops.
After the administration changes, an increasing possibility in 2013, it will be essential to clean house and install litigators who don’t flinch under fire, both in the courtroom and also on the battlefield. It’s time to put someone in charge of protecting military voters who cares about military voters, preferably with military experience.
Senator John Cornyn has put the heat on Justice, and blocked the nomination of James Cole to be Deputy Attorney General. Justice was desperate to have Cole confirmed weeks ago, and the military voting mess has aggravated top DOJ leadership. Americans rightfully outraged by the DOJ concession should send notes of support to Senator Cornyn for his efforts to protect military voters. The shameful Wisconsin settlement will likely strengthen Cornyn’s resolve on the Cole hold.
Could Wisconsin have done something differently? Lots.
The report by attorney Colleen Pero was introduced at an event held by the Heritage Foundation. It identified $45 million spent by Soros, who funds a large range of left-wing action groups, to "remake the judiciary and fundamentally change the way judges are selected in the United States."
"This movement to end citizen participation in state judicial elections has been moving swiftly and silently, below the radar of the citizens who would be impacted by Mr. Soros' millions," said Pero in a statement about her report, "and it was time to bring this effort to the public's attention."
The American Justice Partnership explained that 39 states now have some form of judicial elections that provide judges be held accountable to the people they serve. However, Soros' goal has been to convert the procedures into various "merit" selection processes – which mostly have a special panel, often appointed and frequently political – to choose a slate of candidates from which someone, such as a governor, would appoint a judge.
POWERFUL video depicting Presidents of today and days gone by. Sadly, it appears Mr. McNaughton is already under assault and has had to respond to criticism about this painting. The "Race Card" has been thrown out again. It really is amazing that anyone that thinks this President's policies are bad for America does so in peril of the "racist" label.
McNaughton’s website allows you to have an interactive experience with the picture. To try it click here. You can even buy a copy of the print.
Against the background of a darkening sky, all of the past Presidents of the United States gather before the White House, as if to commemorate some great event. In the left hand corner of the painting sits a man. That man, with his head bowed appears distraught and hopeless as he contemplates his future. Some of the past Presidents try to console him while looking in the direction of the modern Presidents as if to say, "What have you done?" Many of these modern Presidents, seemingly oblivious to anything other than themselves, appear to be congratulating each other on their great accomplishments. In front of the man, paper trash is blowing in the wind. Crumpled dollar bills, legislative documents, and, like a whisper—the U.S. Constitution beneath the foot of Barack Obama.
Seth Adam Smith helped Mr. McNaughton make the video and in Mr. McNaughton's own words, he hopes this painting will "Shake the Nation!" Seth has written an EXCELLENT article about this painting. It is a must read~and needs to go viral.
The following are excerpts from his blog:
"The Forgotten Man" by Jon McNaughton
A political storm has been brewing for the past few years and I believe that this painting is the first clear lightning bolt.
Why is Obama Stepping on the Constitution?
Is such an image unwarranted? As Jon clearly states, the painting of Barack Obama stepping on the Constitution is representative of not only Obama’s actions, but of the actions of past Presidents. Nevertheless, Jon has taken great pains to list out several reasons why and how Obama has violated the Constitution.
Some people will reject this painting, claiming that a President would never blatantly disregard the Constitution in such a way. You’re right. No President would ever want something like that on his record. So when it comes down to it, it’s really death by a thousand cuts. Death by a thousand cuts? How so?
Let’s get one thing clear: the Constitution is a document which spells out a government of limited, enumerated powers. America’s Founding Fathers knew, first hand, just how dangerous excessive power could become and they labored to ensure that no one person would get too much, unchecked power.
But for decades now, the Constitution has been slowly chipped away by power-hungry politicians. In the last decade alone we’ve witnessed the Federal Government grow as quickly as its own appetite: Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, the Iraq War, entitlement programs, trillion-dollar deficits, the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, federal bailouts, Stimulus packages, health-care overhauls, the takeover of auto industries, economic regulations, and deficit spending…just to name a few.
With the Federal Government expanding its power and dipping its hands and arms into the economy (creating the now infamous statement “too big to fail”) they have created a political, social and economic climate wherein we find “forgotten” men and women. The Founding Fathers strove, to the best of their ability, to give rights and power to the people. But as time has gone on, the Federal Government has taken much of that power from the people.
To put it simply, the Federal Government has stepped on the Constitution whenever they have stepped outside of its boundaries.
As Mr. Smith says in his blog, "I hope that Americans will no longer be content with simply sitting (like the Forgotten Man) but will wake up and stand up for (not upon) the Constitution."
A reality series that follows first time candidates as they run for office. In this pilot episode, we meet John Dennis and Ari David as they run for Congress in California against incumbents Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman.
Check out Kelsey Grammer's new network~RIGHTNETWORK
About
What we’re about
We are proud Americans.
And we're inspired by the many Americans before us who've stepped forward to help move us all forward. So now we’re stepping forward. We're creating a platform where people can join the national conversation. A place where they can be inspired, entertained, laugh together, or just sit back and enjoy being part of a vibrant community with a similar perspective - a right-minded perspective that includes an entire spectrum of opinion from thoughtful and reserved to bold and brash.
"A right-minded perspective that includes an entire spectrum of opinion from thoughtful and reserved to bold and brash."
We seek to present the values and beliefs that America was built upon. We aim to be straight shooters and will always come to the party with a potent point-of-view. But we will not dominate the conversation… we'll stimulate it. And we will listen happily as the many voices of the Right combine. We'll always encourage debate and we will not shrink from the fight, if it's a fight worth having.
And we''ll enjoy presenting everything with an intelligent wit, a sense of humor, and an optimistic turn. After all, we live in the greatest country on earth and we're excited about what's next. Join us. Let's all step forward together.
RIGHTNETWORK is an independently owned media company. RIGHTNETWORK original content will be available through television, web and mobile.
The network just recently launched and has a number of shows that are in the line up.
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More from the founder, David Jaget:
At RIGHTNETWORK we have created an entertainment television network for Right-Minded people.
RIGHTNETWORK will have a presence on the web (Right Here), your mobile device and, yes, your television.
What is "Right-Minded" you ask? It is all that is Right with the world. We'll appeal to those among us who are thoughtful and reserved, as well as the bold and brash. At RIGHTNETWORK.COM you'll find programming, commentary, and lifestyle sections in addition to a mix of personalities not seen on any other network. Here you’ll find a fresh daily perspective that is unapologetically American. Everything will be presented with humor, insight, wit, and an optimistic turn. There will be plenty of time to talk about the unique programming we offer. I, however, want to take the occasion of Right's launch to address its origin, and to thank those who made it possible.
RIGHTNETWORK is the product of an almost manic love of country. My father still suffers from the trauma of the Holocaust. Hiding in a hole under a pigsty for the better part of two years did that. So did the realization that eight out of ten people in his village in Poland were murdered. I am a product of his reality, and that reality motivated me to seek out what makes America so exceptional—and to do my part in protecting it. I thank God every day that Dad sailed past the Statue of Liberty and stepped onto a pier on Manhattan's Lower West Side right after World War II. Dad taught me how to survive, and to appreciate freedom.
Ronald Reagan suggested that “You can accomplish much if you don't care who gets the credit.” But I must give credit where credit is due: I've been waiting for twenty years to thank one particular person, in the most public way I can, for making me into the man I am. That is the great American thinker Dennis Prager: He is my mentor, my teacher, my captain, and my hero. If I could be granted one wish, it would be for every teenager and young adult in America to do as the Talmud implores: “gather by wise men, sit nearby, and take in their words of wisdom with thirst.” It is one of my crowning achievements to offer Prager University (a college education in five-minute videos) as part of RIGHTNETWORK’s web programming. I encourage all to watch Prager U and to find Mr. Prager on the radio and podcast. You will gain wisdom, clarity, and happiness.
First, among others that I must thank, is RIGHTNETWORK's President and COO, Kevin McFeeley. Kevin recognized immediately that literally half the country’s population was being underserved—and often insulted—by a monolithic point of view that was, frankly, not right. He and his wife sacrificed greatly to make this possible and without Kevin's executive abilities and industry “know-how,” RIGHTNETWORK would not exist.
Ed Snider, the dapper Philadelphia sports legend, has clearly been infused with the American attributes of self-reliance, entrepreneurship, a strong work ethic, and a firm insistence on individual Liberty. No doubt his friendship with Ayn Rand had an influence. He is the quintessential American: RIGHTNETWORK needed his guidance and support and he didn't hesitate to give it.
People ask how Kelsey Grammer got involved with this venture. It’s simple: I saw him, walked up to him, and said “Mr. Grammer, we’re starting a new entertainment TV network for Right-Minded people.” He replied “I'm in.” That was it. Just like that, one of today’s greatest television, movie, and Broadway actors pledged his support to a chiropractor (more importantly) an idea. Kelsey’s a regular guy, a proud American, and a good friend.
Some writers and thinkers deserve a shout out. Most of them are people I've never met, but this is my opportunity to thank those who have helped to shape my thinking.
Thomas Sowell may be the wisest man in America. The first thing I look for in any new or used bookstore is any book by Thomas Sowell. He's a private man, so my only opportunity to see him in person was from the chair of a Hoover Institution event. You, however, will be able to see him on Uncommon Knowledge, a program we are delighted to offer.
I am also indebted to the late William F. Buckley and his legacy at National Review. I bound my entire first full year’s subscription to that magazine in hardcover, so I could keep it forever. Buckley’s influence will live on at RightNetwork in the form of Firing Line; the famous Firing Line debate forum will be a part of our RIGHTNETWORK "Classics" collection.
No one can find his or her right-mind without reading the right books, including those that help us to understand the past. After all, history is only meaningful if it's true and if it teaches us something. My favorite living historian is Paul Johnson. Paul Hollander's brilliant books Political Pilgrims and Anti-Americanism informed me of a mindset I hope to quash. The author and novelist Mark Helprin turned down our invitation to write for this site. No doubt his focus is on his books and I'd want it no other way. If you enjoy being inspired not only by heroic personalities, but by the spoken word itself, read Helprin's extraordinary works of fiction. The multitalented Victor Davis Hanson can be found in a number of publications but he cannot be heard from enough. His debut column for RIGHTNETWORK is therefore proudly presented in this very issue.
Michael Medved, the Salem Radio Host, offered my wife and me a warm meal when we were mere strangers passing through his neck of the woods. He and his wife have continuously offered me wise counsel as well and I appreciate their friendship.
President Ronald Reagan's photo is the first thing I see when I turn on my iPhone; his memory makes me happy, and provides comfort. And what would I have done without Rush Limbaugh to keep me informed and entertained? His stamp on the thinking of everyone my age has been indelible. Mark Levin’s books, radio program, and erudite Defense of Liberty is music to my ears. I once heard a personal story about Glenn Beck from a bus driver named Jerry, and it moved me deeply though I hadn’t even been a witness to the events. You can tell a lot about a man by how he treats people when nobody seems to be looking: Glenn Beck is the real deal—a genuinely decent person.
I need to thank everybody on the RIGHTNETWORK team: Production, Branding, Distribution, Acquisition, Legal, Web, Marketing, and Editorial. You have all performed with excellence.
My parents (I have four of them) sought to raise my brother and me to live the American dream. They succeeded. Mom, your hard work paid off; we love you so much. My brother Mark and I have a pledge to look after one another. I don't know where this enterprise will take me, but . . . Mark, if I can afford it, and you like the area, I'll put your house right next to mine.
I am truly blessed to have true friends. I know who you are, you know who you are. I am so grateful for your friendship.
Finally, I am a wild stallion without my incredible wife. She is, as Owen Wilson's character said in Wedding Crashers, “my soul's counterpoint.” I need her. She balances me. Without her I am not fully whole.
It is with both gratitude and sincerity that I welcome you to the RIGHTNETWORK family. It is my hope that you will like what you see and share us with your friends and family. May God bless us all, and may God Bless America, land of the free and home of the brave.
David Jaget
Founder
This is a wonderful thing to see!!!!!!!!!! I wish Kelsey and those behind this all the best and look forward to great things from them.
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