Marco Rubio - Jerusalem is the Capital of Israel: During an interview with http://shark-tank.net , Florida's senator-elect Marco Rubio says, "I think the Obama administration is undermining Israel." . . .

"I don't know if they [the US government]are doing it deliberately but certainly their actions have made Israel less safe and made America less safe. I hope they will reverse course." [Shark Take Media Video]

Tags: Marco Rubio, Florida, US Senate, Greta Van Susteran, Fox New, Congress, Budget, Israel, Jerusalem, Capital of Israel To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 8:56 PM 0 Comments - Share Yours! December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010

Tags: America's Best Choice, Christmas, 2010, Merry Christmas To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 8:00 AM 0 Comments - Share Yours! December 24, 2010

Good News For Florida Census Data Released; Florida, Georgia, Texas Gain House Seats: Data is slowly coming out this morning indicating that Florida, Georgia and Texas have gained seats in the House of Representatives after the Census report was released. According to the Wall Street Journal, Texas has gained 4 seats, Florida has gained 2 seats, and Georgia has gained a single seat. Ohio has lost 2 seats.
Expected to lose House seats are Big Government liberal states like Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Also expected to lose seats are Iowa, Missouri, and Louisiana.

According to The Hill:

In all, 12 House seats shifted.

The biggest gainer, as expected, was the state of Texas, which will have four new House seats. The only other state netting more than one additional seat is Florida, which was awarded two new seats Tuesday.

The biggest losers this round are the presidential battleground state of Ohio and heavily Democratic New York — both states will lose two seats.

Another eight states lose one seat — Illinois, New Jersey, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Missouri and Massachusetts.

Six states are gaining just a single seat — Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah and Washington state.

Also announced was the total U.S. population: 308,745,538. That’s a 9.7 percent increase from the 2000 population count.

Tags: Census, Florida, Georga, Texas, US Congress, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Washington To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 12:59 PM 1 Comments - Share Yours! December 22, 2010

Cut The CRAP - Upkeep of Unused VA Monkey House - $175 Million

Bill Smith, Editor: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) released his annual “Wastebook” Monday, discussing 100 spending projects that squandered $11.5 billion of public money this year. The following is part of series of articles where that will be run drawing on Coburn's 2010 Wastebook and other sources to identify government funded waste. We are going to call the series Cut the CRAP which represents depending on the situation (Congress' Reckless Addiction to Pork) or (Congress' Reckless Allowance of Piss-Poor-Performance).

If you are angry with the waste, leave a comment, but most of all forward the example to your congressional representative and Senators and tell them to Cut the CRAP. Let your friends know about the waste. And get involved with organizations opposing government fraud, waste, and abuse. However, if you are happy with the pork project, share with us why you believe the government should be taxing others and in-debting our even grandchildren for the project.

Upkeep for Unused Monkey House and Other Buildings -
(Department of Veterans Affairs) $175 Million
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spends $175 million every year to
maintain hundreds of buildings it does not use, including a pink, octagonal
monkey house in Dayton, Ohio as identified by Jana Winter in a Fox News exclusive.

Many of the buildings are in severe disrepair, but the VA does not have the funds
to improve them. Complex federal laws make it difficult for the agency to sell the
buildings. So instead they sit unused, except for the vermin, birds, and insects
that use them for shelter. The VA disputes the $175 million figure, saying it spent only $34 million last year on unused buildings. Moreover, the agency says it has made progress in shedding properties it no longer needs, selling off 266 buildings in the last three years. Meanwhile, some veterans‘ advocates are calling on the VA to use the buildings to house homeless vets.

It is time for the Veterans Administration to better serve Veterans and to stop the waste and abuse in its department.

Congress: Cut The CRAP - No more funds to the VA or any other government or non-government agency to "upkeep Unused / Un-Needed Buildings. Hold these agencies accountable and stop funding recurring fraudulent budget line items.
Tags: US Congress, CRAP, Cut the Crap, Veterans Administration, monkey, monkey house, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 9:01 AM 0 Comments - Share Yours! December 20, 2010

Herman Cain's Hat is Almost in the Ring For President 2012

Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service: Herman Cain appeared on Fox News "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" last Friday and talked about why he is 70% ready to run for President in 2012. He called himself and unconventional candidate because he has not held office but was a successful in business. He is going to decide after the 1st of the year.

He has formed an exploratory committee and launched a Draft Herman Cain President 2012 (more later). Gretta like others want candidates to announce on their shows but Cain will most like announce on one of Neil Cavudo shows on Fox News.

As many know, I have for some time been supporting the Draft Sarah Palin 2012 Committee. Will I continue to do so? Yes. Will I support the Draft Herman Cain for President 2012? You betcha!  I liked watching and supporting Sarah Palin in 2008. I voted for her and that other guy she was running with. She is dynamic and it is amazing watching her communicate with a crowd. She also leads in being nationally known.  She is a classy conservative lady who the liberals hate above all other candidates.  I will keep my Veterans for Sarah hat on my rack whether she runs or not!  Palin has learned the national debate game since 2008.  If she wins the Republican nomination, she will shred Obama and his policies.

Only, former governor Fox News host Mike Huckabee has more TV time and experience governing. He also has been a candidate for president. Even though he and I have not always agreed on fiscal issues in the past, we have both supported other candidates for state offices and with age, we are both a couple years older and wiser in our experiences; although he is the young guy. Huckabee has been carrying the campaign banner the longest and communicates well. For those who any of our past history, Mike and I have mended fences and so there is absolutely no confusion in the future, if Mike runs for President and is the chosen Republican candidate against Barack Obama in 2012, I will be wearing an "I Like Mike" hat and supporting him.

Another potential is Rep. Mike Pence. Although I but do not have any personal experience with other than listening to him , reporting on him and following his actions as leader of the republican house caucus, I like the prospects for Rep. Mike Pence. Obviously, I like his willingness to talk directly with new media bloggers and his staff arrange discussions with other House members. Pence has walked the conservative walk and taken stands agreeable to most Tea Party conservatives while also being well received by traditional values conservatives. Last year, he received the last years National Right To Life award. Mike Pence also carries himself in a stately mature manner that is an antithesis of the present resident of the White House. He understanding the needs of America and if president would represent America to the world without bowing to other nations and their leaders. As an aside, I served in the military from the Johnson through the Reagan administration. I have noted that Pence reminds me of Reagan's good-natured humor, and calmness in addressing people and events. Having said all this, depending on his decision next year, there may another hat hung on a peg for Mike Pence.

But folks, unlike others, I do not mind having lots of hats while others often prefer just a favorite hat. I am happy to see numerous viable quality conservative candidates available to run for office. We need someone to bring the ship of state back into a safe harbor and reversing the threat of national bankruptcy. And this brings me to Herman Cain, a man who makes others feel better just being around him. While we have walked different career paths, we respect each others method of service to our county. Cain has been successful business man and later has been a motivational conservative speaker who unlike our current president knows what he is talking about when it comes to the economy.

What impresses me most about Herman Cain is his ability to reach out and to connect with others both intellectually and emotionally. When I see him with news reporter on TV, he isn't as comfortable being with commentators, but then again we know commentators. But, when you see Herman with people, he electrifies them and connects and excites them and moves their reasoning along to the right conclusions. I have noted that people regardless of age, race or sex seem to mentally adopt him as a wise father figure.

I have had many opportunities in the last two years to be at events with Herman and to join him on the Spending Revolt Bus Tour and at American For Prosperity events. When attending events, if Herman Cain was to speak, I would skip watching him on the live feed provided the press room, and would go to the convention floor. I liked observing the reaction of the attendees. In every situation from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, to Las Vegas, to Little Rock, to Tea Party events, when Herman Cain spoke, the people not only listened but were on their feet in minutes cheering him on and agreeing with every word he spoke. Besides explaining things as they should be, he would also share great stories and practical advice and ideas like his Bumble Bee story or his SIN principles for determining unreachable liberals.

For those who have yet to meet Mr. Cain, here is brief bio we add to articles placed on articles posted on this site. However, he is far more than these few words.

Mr. Herman Cain is an American newspaper columnist, businessman, politician, noted speaker, and conservative radio talk-show host. He previously served as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza and previously worked as a mathematician for the Department of the Navy, a business analyst for the Coca-Cola Company, and for the Pillsbury Company, where he became Vice-President of Corporate Systems and Services. In 2004, Cain ran for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. He is a contributor to the a ARRA News Service and heads The Hermanator PAC which is focused on "Taking Back Our Government."

While Barack Obama might beat Herman Cain in one-on-one basketball, Obama could not hold a candle to Herman Cain in a Presidential debate. And Herman Cain knows the heart of the American people and knows how to creat jobs and run a large business without the government.  With Cain in the race, there will be an elevation of discussions. Also, the liberals race card would be mute. Although some liberals have already called Herman an Uncle Tom and not really black.  I think we need to be doing a lot of "raising Cain" - causing trouble or creating an uproar over Obama's policies and the liberal agenda.  So, I am enthusiastically hanging a hat on peg supporting Herman Cain for President 2012.

If you would like to know more about Herman Cain, join me and others in encourage Herman Cain to run for office, visit the following link. You will not be disappointed; Cain will mentor you in ways to take on liberals and to put American back on the right track.

More information at Draft Herman Cain for President 2012
Tags: Herman Cain, Draft Herman Cain, Sarah Palin, Mike Pence, Mike Huckabee, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 7:35 PM 0 Comments - Share Yours! December 19, 2010

The Worst Books Ever Written by Chip Wood, Personal Liberty Digest: . . . A couple of years ago, Human Events (one of my favorite conservative news-weeklies) asked a group of scholars and public-policy leaders to compile a list of the 10 Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th centuries. . . . A whole bunch of terrible titles got an Honorable Mention. (Or maybe that should be a Dishonorable Mention.) But here are the Top 10 books the scholars credited with causing more harm to mankind than anything else written in the past 250 years.

1. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
There was near-unanimity on the book that deserved the No. 1 slot. The Communist Manifesto received almost twice as many points as the title that captured second place. And is it any wonder?   The “dictatorship of the proletariat,” as implemented by Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, led to the wholesale extermination of more than 200 million people.
I’m not talking about the victims of war here, but the systematic slaughter of entire populations as a means of consolidating and preserving state power.  Of course the “withering away of the state,” as promised in the Manifesto, has never occurred anywhere communism has been tried. That was nothing more than boob-bait, as H.L. Mencken rightly observed, designed to seduce credulous idealists and immature college students.

2. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) was originally published in two parts in 1925 and 1926, after Hitler was imprisoned for leading the Nazi Brown Shirts in the so-called “Beer Hall Putsch” that tried to overthrow the Bavarian government. In it, Hitler explained exactly what he planned to do once he seized power — murder the Jews, wage war against France and then Russia and establish a thousand-year reign (his “Third Reich”) for the Aryan race.
What a pity that authorities dismissed him as an insignificant annoyance, instead of the evil genius whose efforts would lead directly to World War II, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and the slaughter of millions of Jews. They released him from prison instead of saving all of us from a lot of suffering.

3. Quotations from Chairman Mao by Mao Zedong
This tract, also known as “The Little Red Book,” was ostensibly written by the Chinese Communist dictator in 1966, 17 years after he seized power in China and founded the “People’s Republic.”  More than a billion copies were distributed in China as part of Mao’s “cultural revolution.”  But believe it or not, Mao’s “Little Red Book” found its greatest popularity among Marxist college professors in the West, who couldn’t get enough of such anti-American pap as this from Chairman Mao: “It is the task of the people of the whole world to put an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by imperialism, and chiefly by U.S. imperialism.”

4. The Kinsey Report by Alfred Kinsey

Kinsey and his staff conducted extensive surveys of American sexual habits, including incredibly explicit one-on-one interviews, in the 1940s. The results appeared in two books — Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, published in 1948, and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, published in 1953. Together, the two became known as The Kinsey Report.  Kinsey, a zoologist at Indiana University, acknowledged that part of his purpose was to give a scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy. One reviewer later noted that Kinsey’s first report “stunned the nation by saying that American men were so sexually wild that 95 percent of them could be accused of some kind of sexual offense under 1940s laws.” His second report went even further, describing “sexual activity involving girls younger than age 4 and suggest[ing] that sex between adults and children could be beneficial.”

5. Democracy and Education by John Dewey
Here’s a name that isn’t mentioned much anymore, but Dewey’s influence in the first half of the 20th century was enormous. In this 1916 work, Dewey (the “father of progressive education”) denounced education that focused on traditional character development and the accumulation of “hard” knowledge (i.e., facts). Instead, the secular humanist advocated teaching “thinking skills,” with little concern about what is “right” or “wrong.”  We are still paying the price for such idiocy today, nearly 100 years later.

6. Das Kapital by Karl Marx
When he died in 1867, Marx had completed just the first volume of a planned three-volume study. His benefactor Friedrich Engels finished the other two volumes from notes Marx left. In his magnum opus, Marx portrayed capitalism as merely an ugly phase in human development, in which capitalists exploit labor by paying the cheapest wages possible to amass as much wealth as possible. (Sounds like a Barack Obama speech today, doesn’t it?)  Such injustice would end, Marx said, in a worldwide proletarian revolution.

7. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
In this 1963 bestseller, Betty Friedan, the first of the angry feminists, disparaged stay-at-home motherhood as “a comfortable concentration camp.” Friedan later founded and was for many years the president of the National Organization for Women. Friedan was no mere liberal activist, however. As David Horowitz notes, “from her college days and until her mid-30s, she was a Stalinist Marxist, the political intimate of the leaders of America’s Cold War fifth column, and for a time even the lover of a young communist.” Friedan’s unattractiveness was much more than skin deep; her ugliness went all the way to the bone.

8. Course of Positive Philosophy by Auguste Comte
I’m not sure how this one made it to Top 10. Like you, I can think of lots of books that have done more damage — starting with Dr. Spock’s baby book, which told generations of parents not to spank their children. Still, this six-volume study, published between 1830 and 1842, is generally credited with creating the field of social studies, or “sociology” (a word Comte coined). The son of a royalist Catholic family that survived the French revolution, Comte turned his back on theology, bragging that, “I have naturally ceased to believe in God.”  Comte taught that man alone, through scientific observation, could determine the way things ought to be, without any reliance on a Higher Power.

9. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
An oft-scribbled bit of college-campus graffiti goes, “God is dead — Nietzsche,” followed by “Nietzsche is dead — God.”   Nietzsche’s contention that “God is dead” first appeared in his 1882 book, The Gay Science, but was expanded and popularized in Beyond Good and Evil, which appeared four years later. In it, the German philosopher argued that all men are driven by an amoral “Will to Power,” and that superior men will sweep aside all obstacles to their ambition, including religiously-inspired moral rules. Not surprisingly, the Nazis loved Nietzsche.

10.  General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes
Lord Keynes was an interesting contradiction. A member of the British elite (he was educated at Eton and Cambridge), he did more to popularize ever-expanding government than any other economist of his era.  Keynes became immensely wealthy through his investments, yet argued in favor of deficit spending and government borrowing. Long before Richard Nixon famously said, “We are all Keynesians now,” Franklin Roosevelt used Keynes’ arguments to justify the massive growth of government. As a result, today we have a $3.5 trillion Federal budget and a $13.8 trillion national debt. Thanks, Lord Keynes.

Dishonorable Mentions
Want some more really bad books?  There are 10 titles that garnered a substantial number of votes, but fell short of the top 10. In order they are: The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich, What Is To Be Done by V.I. Lenin, Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno, On Liberty by John Stuart Mill [I don't know why this got included], Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner, Reflections on Violence by Georges Sorel, The Promise of American Life by Herbert Croly, The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault and Soviet Communism: A New Civilization by Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

So there you have it — 20 books that have caused unimaginable suffering, horror and devastation in the world. While some of them have (deservedly) disappeared into the trash cans of history, you will still find most of them praised and promoted on our college campuses today.

And allow me to add one more: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Inheritance, by Barack Obama (and William Ayers). This book is credited with helping to launch Obama’s Presidential campaign. You can see where that has gotten us. . . . [Full Article]
Tags: books, top 10, worst books, Liberty, Suggested Reading, Barack Obama To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 10:00 AM 1 Comments - Share Yours! December 16, 2010

Reviewing The Tea Party Movement

by Bill Smith / Ozark Guru: As we end 2010, conservatives have seen in the last two years an awakening within the general population with respect to the dangers of Big Government. In part, this awakening can be to the many groups, organizations, national figures, and the conservative new media. However, this article and the below research will address only the Tea Party movement.

As a conservative activist, I was involved long before there was a Tea Party. I wish to thank those who nudge me along. As a retired military officer and university professor, at 60, I had planned to retire (slow down) except for writing/ blogging, speaking, fishing, golfing and enjoying home and family. I never expected that by 61, I would be more active than when I worked two or more jobs. By 2008, I was coordinating team efforts supporting 23 US Congressional candidates.  After my preferred candidates for the GOP presidential nomination withdrew or were defeated, I supported Sarah Palin and that "other guy" for president. By the end of the 2008 elections, I was physically exhausted. But as disappointed as I was with the election outcomes, I was encouraged and motivated by the number of young conservatives I met during the year.

William Clark, friend and adviser of Ronald Reagan, related how Reagan gathered his close supporters together after the election of President Jimmy Carter and said something to the effect that Americans can not abide socialism for very long. While he was proven right, Reagan had three years to build a coalition before launching his Presidential campaign.

In 2009, after Democrats took total control of Congress and the White House, a few conservative activists recognized that the American reaction would be more visceral and could be mobilized to respond to the Democrats pushing through their progressive agenda. When approached by these young activists wishing to build on "rant" by Rick Santelli on February 19, 2008, I realized that they were on to something. But, I questioned whether large numbers would rally. History has proved that I had no reason to be concerned. Then later, when large numbers responded and joined local Tea Party groups, I was concerned that the conservative movement would not be able to educate them on the political processes or ways to remain active which could lead to the Tea Parties deteriorating or being viewed as a tentative and short lived - thus ignored or suppressed by those in power.

Even with harassment by the Department of Homeland Security - negative warnings - of conservatives, including Tea Party members and the followers of three presidential candidates, I did not need to be concerned. As with any meaningful effort, Providence provided numerous people, including national personalities, who became nation-wide  teachers on the issues, threats to freedom and the processes. Existing conservative research and issue groups increased their communication and brought into their organizations many young conservative new media activists to expand their message outreach.  Organizations like Americans for Prosperity and American Majority came along side local groups including the Tea Party groups to provided training, information and opportunities for involvement. In the end, leadership for the grassroots Tea Party was nurtured everyday grassroots Americans who adapted and learned as they organized.

A young man approached me about his holding a TEA Party in the Ozark Mountains. On April 15, 2007, Richard Caster, age 17, held the first meeting of the Ozark Tea Party which went on to have as many as 3000 people attend its events. Caster can be identified as one of the "early adopters" discussed later. As an aside, two years later in the 2010 elections, Caster was elected as the youngest Arkansas County Justice of the Peace (County board member) in Arkansas.

The above is just one of literally thousands of stores of people who for varied reasons got involved mostly via the Internet in holding their first Tea Party.   So, who were these people, what was their experience in politics, and why did they get involved? Then who joined the Tea Party after they were launched ; what were their interests and why did they join?

Sam Adams Alliance has completed research on Tea Party members. The below will present a summary of findings in two categories: The Early Adopters and The Next Wave. All statistics below are taken from their reports which are available at their website. Sam Adams Alliance was the first to explore through in-depth research and survey data, the motivations, priorities and points of view of Tea party leaders. The Early Adopters - Reading the Tea Leaves revealed that Tea party activists were a diverse group trying - often for the first time - to change the political landscape by holding elected officials more accountable.

The Early Adopters report reveals that: The Next Wave - A Surf Report gauges the activists who entered the Tea Parties after May 2009 and how they are shaping the momentum and impact of the Tea Party movement.

The Next Wave report reveals that:
Sam Adams Alliance has indicated they will perform future research into exploring the interactions between establishment political players and the Tea Party newcomers, as well as an investigation into understanding why those who share the same values as the Tea Party have not embraced the movement.

Looking back at the November 2010 election, even the biased media noted the reaction by the American voters. Setting aside liberal strongholds, in less than two years, voters voted to remove from office or to rejected the elections of new candidates who were liberals / democrats. As a result, major shifts occurred in the US congress and in State and local governments. Tea Parties activists put both voice and feet to the citizen dissatisfaction and were willing to get out and motivate others to vote conservative. Tea Party members and other did not wait four (4) years for a leader like Ronald Reagan to lead them to victory; instead they acted.

We can only imagine at this point in time the impact that Tea Party members will have in holding the new Congress accountable. And come 2011, if a responsible, honorable, conservative candidate with good communication skills runs for President, the America voters will have the opportunity to sweep liberals from the control of State governments and the US Congress and the White House. From a dream on Jan, 2009 to a real possibility on Jan 2011; let's make it a fact on Jan 2013! Remain faithful, be involved and remember that being a conservative is not for the faint of heart.
Tags: Tea Party, research, research, Sam Adams Alliance, Bill Smith, Ozark Guru To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 11:45 AM 0 Comments - Share Yours! December 15, 2010

ACLU Wages War on Christmas

By Chris Slavens: It’s that “most wonderful time of the year” again. Children eagerly await a visit from jolly Santa Claus, while their parents try to squeeze shopping into a schedule already filled with parties, parades, church programs, and visiting relatives. Grandmothers bake dozens of gingerbread and sugar cookies, while rascally uncles down too much eggnog. Affluent northerners travel to Florida to escape cold weather, while everyone else yearns for a white Christmas.

And the ACLU—that staunch defender of American traditions and values—threatens to sue public schools for acknowledging what all the excitement is about.

Each Christmas season is marked by a series of spirit-dampening stories of towns forced to disassemble nativity scenes, retail stores intimidated into requiring employees to use generic greetings like “Happy Holidays,” and similar Scroogish travesties. This year, one such story comes from Tennessee, where the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to 137 public school administrators, supposedly in response to complaints from families, reminding them not to focus on any one religious holiday.

In other words, don’t call Christmas parties “Christmas parties.” Call them winter celebrations, holiday galas, solstice shindigs, or any other creative misnomer that obfuscates their true purpose and creates a comfortable non-reality for the handful of unfortunate students whose malcontent parents are offended by the celebration of a holiday that is jointly religious and secular in nature.

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 92% of Americans celebrate Christmas, while a mere 6% do not. Of that 6%, only 25% celebrate an alternative holiday. That’s a whopping total of 1.5% of Americans who celebrate a December holiday instead of Christmas. And, apparently, most of them live in Tennessee; how else could that state’s chapter of the ACLU have received so many complaints?

Defending the letter, Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, cites U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and hints that acknowledging Christmas could be considered an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

She is alluding, of course, to the oft-misinterpreted establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress from establishing a state religion. It obviously applies to a third-grade teacher planning a classroom Christmas party for the last day before break—or so those on the far left argue, rather unconvincingly.

Could it be that Weinberg is one of the 6% of Americans who do not celebrate Christmas, and is using the ACLU’s legal muscle and financial assets to push a personal agenda? Such Grinch-like behavior would certainly be unprofessional, if not unethical. If there was a Santa, Weinberg would be on the naughty list for sure.

The ACLU expects public schools to stage a pointless charade of pretending that the concerts, parties, and vacations common to this time of year are not specifically scheduled around December 25. This is an unreasonable expectation which deserves no serious consideration.

The correct course of action for public school administrators to take is to ignore the ACLU, which is not a government entity and does not represent the views of a majority of parents. It would be wrong to alter school policy simply to avoid the hassle of a lawsuit; this would be yielding to what is called the “heckler’s veto,” by which an antagonistic group goads the government into restricting another group’s First Amendment rights. In this case, the hecklers are the ACLU and the instigators it claims to represent.

Lawsuits are expensive, true, and no administrator wants to be on the receiving end of one, but what is the cost of a lawsuit compared to the cost of an eroded culture and disunited society, purposely divided by secularist troublemakers who value political correctness over common sense?
Chris Slavens is a conservative columnist. He writes from Delaware.
Tags: ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, Christmas, Tennessee, public school, Hedy Weinberg, First Amendment, establishment clause, Chris Slavens To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 7:50 PM 0 Comments - Share Yours! December 11, 2010

Obama / GOP Tax Deal - The Good, Bad and Ugly Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service: I am just one voice and will give my opinion on the "tax deal" later. Yesterday, it was identified that "Both Conservatives and Democrats Are Divided Over Supporting the Tax Deal" and identified some of the people and organizations weighing on the "Obama /GOP Tax Deal." Also posted the article "'Tax Cut' Rhetoric Doesn't Cut It" by Dr. Thomas Sowell.

Everett Wilkinson and his team at the South Florida Tea Party have put together some good information and the following simple synopsis of the Obama / GOP Tax Deal called
"The Good, Bad and Ugly":
Good - Individual Tax Rates Remain the Same
Good - AMT Remain the Same
Good - Capital Gains Rates the Same
Fair - Estate Taxes Go Up For Some ($5 Million Exemption)
Bad - Only Good For Two Years
Bad - Unemployment Benefits Extended
Ugly - $200 Billion in Stimulus Spending
Ugly- Dozens of Earmarks for Special Interests

Obama / GOP Tax Deal:
01 & 03 Bush Tax Cuts $364 billion
AMT Patch $137 billion
Payroll Tax Holiday $112 billion
Estate Tax Change $68 billion
Unemployment Extension $56 billion
Tax Extenders $55 billion
2009 Tax Relief $43 billion
Expensing Provision $22 billion

While we need the tax relief to prevent a recession and giving Washington more of our money, in my mind the deal being cobbled together every day is questionable with its numerous earmark spending programs added by the liberals as their cost for agreeing with  "the deal." First, this is not a tax cut, but is in fact a massive tax increase. Second - Heck! the liberals are not buying into anything; they just want to spend more of OUR money even if it runs us into more debt. That is why, I used the picture yesterday of the "Obama Debt Star."

What do you think we should do? The South Florida TEA party has a simple poll to provide feedback on your opinion. I suggest doing so at their site. It gives you the following options to the question:
Do you support the "Bush Tax Cut Deal" between Obama & GOP?
Whether you take their poll or not, I would still like your opinion.
I promised to share my opinion. To keep from biasing you in your opinion any more than I may have done, I will post my choice as a comment to this article on the ARRA News Service.
Tags: tax deal, Barack Obama, Republicans, Democrats, South Florida Tea Party, poll To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to America's Best Choice. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith : Post Link --> 7:19 PM 0 Comments - Share Yours! December 4, 2010

Florida Follows Arizona's Lead With New Bill Cracking Down on Illegal Immigrants FOX NEWS — Florida has joined Arizona on the front lines of battling illegal immigration with a new bill released this week that seeks to crack down on the estimated 800,000 undocumented workers in the state.

The bill, filed by state Sen. Michael Bennett, allows law enforcement officers to check the residency status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant and would punish some legal immigrants who aren't carrying proper documentation.

Florida has been flirting with releasing an immigration bill since the summer when outgoing state Attorney General Bill McCollum wrote a similar proposal with state Rep. William Snyder. But Snyder has yet to file that bill. . . . [Read More]
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