Rhonda - The Big Government Losing Streak Continues: Backs Green Jobs, Attacks Drilling Companies

The Obama Administration is not deterred from its unbroken losing streak as it insists on trying its luck by picking winners and losers. The aggressive policies of the Energy Department, headed by Steven Chu, keep on hitting the racetrack and placing all bets on the long shots in the Green Jobs sector.

While the now-bankrupt Solyndra garnered $535 million in loan guarantees backed by the federal government, the Energy Department has doubled down on a bigger horse, SunPower, with a whopping investment of $1.2 billion dollars in taxpayer dollars from its Loan Programs Office. The Green Jobs-obsessed Obama Administration has rolled the dice with an eye-popping total of nearly $40 billion dollars in ill thought out loan guarantees.

As I detailed in my last post, Artificial Stimulus produced Artificial Recovery, linked here, the failed Solyndra loan was accompanied by multiple loans to other green technology companies that utterly failed.

Rep. George Miller, III, Democrat from California, commented on his big win for SunPower:

By fostering a business climate that encourages companies like SunPower, even more good jobs will be created locally, we’ll reduce demand for dirty energy sources, and we’ll cut customers’ utility bills. That’s the right direction.

Interior secretary Kenneth Salazar maintains the wisdom of yet another shaky pick by the Energy Department. (Come on, it’s a sure bet, this time!)

The path to a clean energy economy starts here, in places like SunPower’s research and development facility.

The work that comes from these facilities transforms renewable energy ideas into a reality. When renewable energy companies continue to invest in places like California, the realization of a new energy future is within our reach.

However, weeks before receiving the government backed loan, SunPower announced that the new plant creating green jobs would be located in Mexico.

Harold Hamm reaches a different set of conclusions altogether and shared his insights with the Wall Street Journal:

President Obama is riding the wrong horse on energy. We can’t come anywhere near the scale of energy production to achieve energy independence by pouring tax dollars into ‘green energy’ sources like wind and solar, he argues. It has to come from oil and gas.

Harold Hamm, the founder and CEO of oil company Continental Resources, went to Washington last month. Hamm forcefully argued that the United States could be “completely energy independent by the end of the decade. We can be the Saudi Arabia of oil and natural gas in the 21st century.”

Hamm argued against the failed policies of the Obama administration and its zealous minions who seek to pour millions and billions of taxpayer dollars down the drain of Green Energy companies. Government backed loans for bankrupt companies is merely a quixotic pursuit of adopting green energy to power the massive American economy. However, the free market’s reluctance to invest further should be a flashing road sign warning of the foolhardiness of tossing money at an “old green mare.” When the technology and cost effectiveness of Green Technology warrants investment, the private sector’s venture capitalists will ante up with investment funds. Government spending has failed miserably, wasting billions in taxpayer dollars when America can least afford to squander shrinking revenues on losers that cannot survive in a competitive economy. The Green Energy companies are too green to produce jobs or even to stay afloat. No amount of priming the pump with precious dollars from U.S. citizens has changed this stubborn reality.

Hamm and his soaring Continental Resources has had jaw dropping success in the newest advancements in fossil fuel exploration. His experiences and success have become legendary in the industry.

Hamm was one of the pioneers of “horizontal drilling” which has unlocked huge, new stores of domestic fossil fuels. He was the original discoverer of the gigantic Bakken oil fields of Montana and North Dakota. The U.S Geological Survey estimate was around four or five billion barrels. But the oil man with the Midas touch asserts that that estimate falls woefully short.

“No way. We estimate that the entire field, fully developed, in Bakken is 24 billion barrels.”

Harold Hamm has been the leader of the resurgence of the oil industry that has now become the “fastest-growing manufacturing sector” in the nation and has positioned the U.S. in third place among oil producers in the world.

Due to the perfect alignment of the stars, or some Invisible Hand, the controlling power of OPEC is simultaneously falling. OPEC no longer controls market share or dictates price. Although the U.S. Imported about two-thirds of its oil in the 1990′s, today we import less than half of it with 40% coming from Canada and Mexico.

At last, North America may achieve energy independence. So what could stop that success now?

The ideological bent of President Obama and his likeminded administration members continue to thwart the opportunity for a prosperous America and real job creation with job-killing policies and personal forays into “venture socialism.”

Hamm was invited to a “giving summit” along with other wealthy Americans like Buffett and Gates. When it was Mr. Hamm’s turn to talk briefly with President Obama, “I told him of the revolution in the oil and gas industry and how we have the capacity to produce enough oil to enable America to replace OPEC. I wanted to make sure he knew about this.”

The president’s reaction?

He turned to me and said, ‘Oil and gas will be important for the next few years. But we need to go on to green and alternative energy. [Energy] Secretary [Steven] Chu has assured me that within five years, we can have a battery developed that will make a car with the equivalent of 130 miles per gallon.’ Even if you believed that, why would you want to stop oil and gas development? It was pretty disappointing.

Currently, Continental Resources is facing charges brought by the Obama Justice Department for the death of a SINGLE bird in North Dakota under the Migratory Bird Act. Meanwhile, no charges are filed against the preferred wind industry, which kills over 400,000 birds each year. And with drilling permits difficult to procure and this antagonistic Administration’s policy proposals, such as raising $40 billion in taxes on the oil and gas industry, drilling companies face difficult road blocks.

The job creation record of Hamm’s company is staggering:

Mr. Hamm believes that if Mr. Obama truly wants more job creation, he should study North Dakota, the state with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 3.5%. He swears that number is overstated: ‘We can’t find any unemployed people up there. The state has 18,000 unfilled jobs…And these are jobs that pay $60,000 to $80,000 a year.’ The economy is expanding so fast that North Dakota has a housing shortage. Thanks to the oil boom—Continental pays more than $50 million in state taxes a year—the state has a budget surplus and is considering ending income and property taxes.

So what is stopping the U.S. from achieving energy independence today? The failed policies of the Obama administration intent on squandering piles of revenue on Green Energy which has failed to create jobs while impeding the success of the fastest-growing manufacturing sector.

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
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Rhonda - Artificial Stimulus produced an Artificial Recovery

As the old song goes, “Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby!” My children agree with this axiom wholeheartedly. Since they were born, they have ingested relatively few things that were made from artificial ingredients. My son seemed to throw up every time he had anything that contained red dye, so we became acutely aware of the list of ingredients on everything. It was surprising to realize that almost every juice, popsicle, cereal, and yogurt, even exorbitantly priced “organic” ones, contained the pervasive red dye. My daughter began to dislike the bitter taste of the dye and, with her sensitive sense of taste, can still detect its unexpected presence. Our family is not a crunchy, granola one and I don’t own even a single pair of Birkenstocks, but we do prefer real, wholesome ingredients in our food and treats, instead of the cloying taste of dyes and artificial preservatives.

Likewise, our economy has struggled along with stops and starts and fits and coughs as a result of a steady diet of artificial stimulus. The idea that throwing money into the economy in any haphazard manner cannot help but produce economic growth is producing an undeniable result. Tossing money at a weak idea that cannot endure the normal rigors of due diligence probes, like the infamous Solyndra stimulus funding of $535 million, produces nothing other than layoffs of workers and bankruptcy that has left the taxpayers twisting in the wind. However, the temptation of misleading American citizens into subsidizing even more bankrupt business plans has proved too great for the ”venture socialists” in the current administration.

The economic stimulus package of 2009 doled
out taxpayer dollars in the millions and billions to pet interests and pork programs of members of Congress. While much of the funding went to states to meet budget shortfalls, shore up pension funds, and extend unemployment benefits, the rest was rushed out without reasonable investigation or oversight. Solyndra is the embodiment of Conservatives’ worst fears about hurriedly spending almost one trillion dollars in the name of government stimulus or a massive experiment in Keynesian economics. Sadly, though, Solyndra is just the flavor of the moment and has plenty of company.

The list of failing companies that greedily disposed of millions in government stimulus funds, only to collapse after such gluttony, is growing.

Evergreen Solar, Inc. received $5.3 million in stimulus funds from the 2009 economic stimulus package. The company has declared bankruptcy now. They are joined by SpectraWatt which obtained a $500,000 Stimulus grant from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Another winner of stimulus who ultimately lost is Mountain Plaza Inc. Despite declaring bankruptcy in 2003, the company received $424,000 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation as part of a grant aimed at installing “truck stop electrification” systems that allow idling truckers to plug-in during extended stops and turn off their exhaust-belching, environment polluting diesel engines.

The company filed for bankruptcy again in 2010.

Elsewhere, Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Co. also failed despite Olsen’s Mills receiving $10 million to increase employment, add equipment and machinery, refinance existing debts and work capital for operations and acquire land. The payout — part of a $64 million package to nine rural businesses in Wisconsin for economic development loan assistance — was delivered in January 2010, after Olsen’s Mills filed for bankruptcy protection for defaulting on a $60 million bank loan.

While President Obama travels the country touting the success of the 2009 Stimulus and begs Americans to show their “love” for him by passing his second round of stimulus now, the jobs supposedly created by the government are vanishing faster than a Slush Puppie in the summertime.

The Obama administration promised that its $38.6 billion loan guarantee program to promote green jobs would create or save 65,000 jobs. Instead, only 3,545 have been created after investing about half of that total, according to the Energy Department.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee surmised:

My goodness. We should be reviewing every one of these loan guarantee projects.

Perhaps the loan guarantee business should not be undertaken by the Federal government at all. Perhaps capital investments should be provided by private investors who are experienced at risking their own capital in a cautious, calculated way after performing due diligence. Perhaps free markets should be free to operate without government interference and incompetence.

Peter Kohlstadt is a former Solyndra employee. His comments in an interview with Greta Van Susteren reveal some misconceptions about how businesses become successful and prosperous that are apparently commonplace.

VAN SUSTEREN: Were you there when President Obama visited?
KOHLSTADT: I wasn’t in the building. I was — at the time, I was in another building. But I saw the live video feed of it. So it was — it was — it was a proud moment, you know, to have the president, you know, visit your company. And you know, at that point, we thought, Wow, we’re — you know, I think we’re really going to make it, you know? You know, the president, you know, is kind of backing us, in a sense. And you know, you figure that, OK, you know, there may be some bumpy times, but, you know, ultimately, there was never a thought that they’d close their doors.

You know what? Whether or not your President, who received millions in campaign fundraising dollars from the green energy producers and promoters, endorses and infuses your company with taxpayer-backed loans, your economic success still depends on the conventional constraints of supply and demand. If China produces a greater supply of solar panels at a ridiculously low price at the same time that demand diminishes, your company will, you know, require a force greater than the frivolous endorsement of a, you know, Harvard Law professor to keep its doors open.

The falling price of traditional solar panels is likely the main cause of Solyndra’s bankruptcy.

The simple fact is that artificial stimulus packages or temporary government spending does not create jobs. The market conditions must be right for a business or service to be in demand. Only when the demands of the marketplace and the authentic market conditions indicate support for a new business enterprise can there be real success and prosperity.


The free market system cannot be artificially manipulated by the intervening hand of a meddling government. At best, such inorganic approaches produce temporary results that yield bitter fruits of failure in the long run. The last 3 1/2 years have produced a phony, government-engineered harvest infested with crony capitalism, bankruptcies, and layoffs.

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
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Rhonda - A Glimpse of 9/11 from the View of Future Generations

Today I had the sad experience of explaining 9/11 to my children. After looking at some images of the horrors that occurred on that day a few years before my children were born, we watched President Bush’s Bullhorn speech at Ground Zero. Bush emphasized the nation’s support and prayers for the emergency rescue workers at Ground Zero, and proclaimed these now iconic words:

I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!

My children cheered and danced around the room after hearing Bush’s shout out to our heroes and our enemies. My daughter said, “I love that man!” The impact was not lost on my children that the president was standing arm in arm with New York City firefighters and that he clearly loved America and its heroes.

We then watched Bush’s address to the nation. My daughter shushed her younger brother who was still wired from hearing the cheers from the crowds as we listened to Bush’s bullhorn. Meanwhile, she was intent on hearing his every solemn word from 2001.

I was so grateful as I heard him quote a passage from Psalm 23 and share his own prayer that others would be comforted by a “Power greater than any of us”:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me.

President Bush’s determination to share his own source of comfort, from the God in whom we trust, stands in stark contrast with the timid leadership of Mayor Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg has steadfastly defended his decision to ban clergy such as evangelicals, as well as first responders, from the pomp and circumstance of his memorial ceremony in New York City today. The bagpipes will sound lovely, the politicians will strike just the right notes, but the glaring omission will still be the absence of our heroes who yet again became an American symbol of strength and bravery- the firemen and police who first responded on 9/11.

At the interfaith prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, a minuscule but diverse segment of America will be honored through the presence of a Buddhist nun and an incarnate llama. This nod to an obscure segment of our culture and clear attempt to avoid representatives of the Faith of our Fathers will pale in juxtaposition with the beauty and strength that emerged from the ashes of Ground Zero ten years ago.

Contrary to the outlandish, sensationalist claims by Paul Krugman today in the New York Times, 9/11 is not remembered by “shame.” Krugman’s blatant attempt at casting aspersion on the events surrounding 9/11 are as transparent as Bloomberg’s obvious disdain for our Judeo-Christian tradition, regardless of how thinly it is cloaked in clumsy attempts to avoid offending some religious group.

If my children’s reaction to a history lesson on President Bush and his response to 9/11 is any indicator, that President will be viewed very favorably in the long view of history.

May God bless America anew.

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
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Rhonda - Spitballs for John Kerry’s TEA Party Downgrade Statement

The branding campaign by the Democratic party, and its sycophants in the media, has labelled the downgrade of the United States’ credit rating by S&P the “TEA Party downgrade.”

This coordinated response was trotted out by David Axelrod, President Obama’s reelection campaign strategist, on a Sunday morning talk show:

“If we had defaulted on our debt, the consequences would have been dramatic and lasting,” Axelrod said on CBS’s’ “Face the Nation.’” It was the wrong thing to do to push the country to that point. It was something that should never have happened, that clearly is on the backs of those who were willing the see the country default — those very strident voices in the tea party.”

“We can debate the strength of the analysis they did,” Axelrod said. “They made an egregious error here, but theirs was largely a political analysis, and that is what we should focus on.”

Earlier that same Sunday morning, On Meet the Press, Sen. John Kerry likewise, in lockstep, proclaimed the historic downgrade of America’s credit rating “the TEA Party downgrade” as directed by the election politics of Axelrod and Plouffe. Ironically, the confused Kerry insisted that others were “politicizing” the downgrade!

(Sen. John Kerry on Meet the Press August 7th,2011)

“And what we need is a Washington that stops this bickering, that gets rid of these hard positions that I noticed even in Speaker Boehner’s comments about the downgrade, politicizing it in the sense that, you know, sort of blaming it on the Democrats….”

The list of factors ignored by Kerry’s claim is long. The glaring fact that America briefly crossed the ignominious threshold of a 100% national debt to GDP ratio on August 3rd was largely ignored. Furthermore, the national debt is projected to exceed the growth rate in 2012. To pretend that increasing deficit spending was not a major factor in the decision to downgrade is ludicrous.

Finally, to pretend that Democrats like John Kerry, who mindlessly repeat the party line“TEA Party downgrade”, are not opportunistically politicizing and engaging in demagoguery of one of the most serious threats to our nation, mounting debt, is just silly talk.

After all, it was President Obama himself who threatened to default:

I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3 if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.

In reality, Obama knew that $200 billion in the U.S. treasury in August would be more than sufficient to cover social security checks for seniors. He chose to demagogue the crucial debate over the debt ceiling rather than seeking to reassure the volatile markets with a responsible fiscal budget plan aimed at balancing the budget and capping out of control spending.

The statement issued by Standard and Poor’s when it downgraded America’s credit rating cited many factors in its decision:

We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process. We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.

It was widely publicized for months that the sovereign debt ratings agency assessed the situation in America as requiring 4 trillion in cuts.

The statement continues:

“Our lowering of the rating was prompted by our view on the rising public debt burden and our perception of greater policymaking uncertainty….”

Additionally, Moody’s commented on the failure of the August 2nd bipartisan plan to allay fears about America’s debt situation. In July, this rival ratings agency put the U.S. Outlook on “review for downgrade”. Moody’s Steven Hess made the following statement:

If the process for further deficit reduction that is included in the Budget Control Act produces results that are not really credible, that combined with the economic performance could potentially cause an early move on the rating.

Even the $917 billion in savings that have already been agreed by Republicans and Democrats are not guaranteed in the long-term, Hess said.

Yes, America is now suffering the effects of gridlock and polarization in its government. That gridlock exists because much of the democratic party continues to support even more deficit spending on unreformed entitlement programs and additional “stimulus spending” that is doomed to fail just as previous “stimulus packages” did. Liberals are deluded in their fantasy of endless money supplies hoarded by the wealthy that could fund each and every utopian desire if only taxes were higher. Most Republicans and TEA Party members continue insisting on fiscal sanity to stop the madness of amassing more debt in America. Calls for a balanced budget are now caricatured as extreme.

Such desperate attempts at political posturing, by the likes of John Kerry, in order to achieve victory in 2012, take me back to 2004 when Gov. Zell Miller unloaded his address to the National Republican Convention. He so memorably branded the Senator from Massachusetts “more wrong, more loudly, more often”. His rousing words still ring true today.

(Gov. Zell Miller’s “Spitballs” speech at the RNC in 2004)

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
Visit Rhonda's Blog - One Conservative Voice

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Rhonda - The Latest Buzz Kill and the Irony of the Debt Ceiling

“It’s like rain on your wedding day or it’s the good advice that you just didn’t take.” As Alanis Morrisette put it, “Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? Who would’ve thought-it figures.”

Last weekend I was driving to beautiful St. Augustine, Florida when I heard the latest economic news. The economic picture presented the last few days has been one befitting Eeyore. The White House response came from Valerie Jarrett who lamented that the poor President has been losing sleep. He may now rest assured that he is not alone. Jarrett stated:

He’s getting absolutely no sleep. He’s working tirelessly, meeting with his economic team, doing a lot of outreach, exploring all kinds of possibilities for compromise,

In the midst of the three ring circus that was the Congressional attempt to raise the debt ceiling,revised economic numbers were released. GDP numbers had been released early in the year but were so distorted that the revised numbers just out bear little resemblance.

The economy grew at 1.3% falling short of the predicted rate of 1.8%. More importantly, economic growth during the first quarter of the year was reported inaccurately to be 1.9%. It is beyond ironic that the revised number, just released, is actually only 0.4%, which reveals the miserable truth of a stalled economy.

Meanwhile, as the spectacle of the debt ceiling debate raged, Sen. Marco Rubio desperately tried to communicate the dire need to address the deficit with trillions in spending cuts. He stressed the consistently overlooked fact that ratings agencies like Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s had actually called for at least 4 trillion in cuts. Without serious cuts in spending, the U.S. will likely face a downgrade in its credit rating. The debt ceiling was never the most significant factor.

(Video of Sen. Marco Rubio)

Republicans presented plan after plan to raise the debt ceiling with simultaneous spending cuts. However, these attempts were ridiculed on the Senate floor. In the video clip linked below, Sen. Harry Reid called the legislation “weak and senseless” and an “anathema” to what the country is all about.

(Video clip of Sen. Harry Reid’s irrational tirade)

The debt ceiling has now been raised, but the fallout has been record setting market drops and a domino effect worldwide. At last, news outlets like the Washington Post have reluctantly reported the possibility that, perhaps, restoring fiscal sanity could be a wise idea:

The debt-limit deal struck by Congress last weekend has been criticized by some budget experts as failing to address the nation’s long-term debt problems even as it staved off a federal default. About $1.1 trillion in stock market wealth has evaporated since the agreement was reached.

You think? Isn’t it ironic that after the shock jock mainstream media hype portraying conservatives as “terrorists” or “thugs” holding the raising of the debt ceiling “hostage” in exchange for actual cuts in the deficit, the subject of trillions in real spending cuts is sheepishly floated a day or two after the deal is sealed?

The necessity of cutting the deficit remains crucial. This attempt by Congress to compromise with entrenched liberal Democrats, who continue to call for outrageous increases in government spending, has fallen woefully short in calming the frayed nerves of global investors and ratings agencies.

As the bedraggled President demanded that the debt ceiling be raised, preferably as a clean bill with no strings attached, the investment class and ratings agencies were continuing their call for deep cuts and responsible fiscal policy. President Obama achieved his goal of raising the credit limit on his worn out credit card, but what did Americans really get in return?

Dear President, I am so sorry to hear of the black fly in your
Chardonnay. For many Americans, though, it’s more like a death row
pardon two minutes too late.

(Artistic acknowledgement of Alanis Morissette, Ironic, lyrics)

Update:
Today, for the first time in our history, Standard and Poor’s has downgraded the credit rating of the United States from a AAA rating to AA plus. Isn’t it ironic that Treasury Secretary Geitner, along with the Obama administration, likely knew the downgrade was virtually assured as they failed to emphasize the necessity of deep cuts.

The media has facilitated this fraud before the American people with its incessant harping on the simplistic, superficial measure of merely raising the debt ceiling without sufficient effort toward lowering the massive deficit.

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
Visit Rhonda's Blog - One Conservative Voice

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Rhonda - Opting for School Choice is Easy for Rahm Emanuel

School Choice is easy for some. Americans with the financial means are able to send their children to the best schools available and reside in neighborhoods that offer successful public school education. All too often, the very worst schools in America are located in impoverished areas where parents have no choice but to send their children to failing schools.

Politicians, who hold the power to change our educational system in America, are exempted from the catastrophe that they foist on US citizens. They frequently possess the means or connections needed to send their own children to the very best, successful schools. Recently, Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s new mayor, was asked in an interview where he planned to send his own children to school. His abrupt change in demeanor illustrated his indignation and intolerance for such a pointed question. The mayor stormed out of the interview as if his personal rights somehow had been violated. Predictably, his children will attend the elite private University of Chicago Laboratory School in Hyde Park just as President Obama’s daughters did.

(Rahm Emanuel interview)


While Rahm Emanuel may escape close scrutiny over his misplaced outrage, Gov. Chris Christie has not been so conveniently overlooked. He, likewise, reacted angrily to inquiry about where he planned to send his children to school with a curt “None of your business!” He did go on to explain that he values parochial education and is concerned about the educational needs of all students in New Jersey. Additionally, Christie emphasized that he pays $38,ooo in property taxes that primarily fund public schools.

When the newly elected President moved to Washington D.C., he and his wife CHOSE Sidwell Friends School over D.C.’s notoriously failing schools. His daughters will receive the same privileged education that also benefitted Chelsea Clinton and Amy Carter before them. The Obama family’s statement to the public was simply that

In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now.

The reality is that, in the end, Barack and Michelle exercised their privileged status that allows them as parents the freedom of school choice. However, school choice is denied most Americans who must attend the school that is forcibly mandated based on a zip code.

School choice includes public charter schools and voucher or scholarship programs. These innovative approaches to education vary from state to state since education is primarily the function of individual states.

Rahm Emanuel and the Obama administration led the charge against school choice in Washington D.C. when Congress sponsored the SOAR Act that reauthorized the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provided school choice scholarships for a small number of children from low-income families. D.C. public schools are ranked 51st in the nation. The results of this scholarship program have been outstanding, as highlighted in the highly awarded documentary, “Waiting for Superman.”

In the Wall Street Journal article, “The Evidence is in: School Vouchers Work”, the following key points were made:

In a study published last year, Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas found that voucher recipients had graduation rates of 91%. That’s significantly higher than the D.C. public school average (56%)

A recent study of Milwaukee’s older and larger voucher program found that 94% of students who stayed in the program throughout high school graduated, versus just 75% of students in Milwaukee’s traditional public schools. And contrary to the claim that vouchers hurt public schools, the report found that students at Milwaukee public schools “are performing at somewhat higher levels as a result of competitive pressure from the school voucher program.” Thus can vouchers benefit even the children that don’t receive them.

Empirical data obtained in states that expand school choice options for parents consistently indicate positive results.

Rahm Emanuel’s response to the reporter who dared ask the mayor about his choice for educating his own children is an appropriate defense for the desperate necessity of granting ALL parents the right of School Choice and Educational Freedom despite their economic status:

No, no, no- you have to understand- I’m making this decision as a father. And that’s a decision we’re gonna make, and anything less than that, would be less than how I think of myself and wanna be as a father.

Dear Mayor, every American deserves this same privilege of making a decision on school choice- and nothing less.

Rhonda

(For more information on School Choice, please see my earlier post “School Choice: Vouchers to Charter Schools”, linked here.)

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
Visit Rhonda's Blog - One Conservative Voice

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Rhonda - Rising Immigration Protests Coincide with Declining Naturalizations

Illegal immigrants have been busy in recent weeks “coming out” of the shadows to brazenly declare their perceived “right” to be here illegally in America. Fueled by fear and anger surrounding new state laws that are serious about halting illegal immigration, groups like the ACLU and the National Council of La Raza have organized protests, and ICE has frequently looked the other way. Many of the protesters are young “Dreamers” who are tenaciously awaiting passage of the DREAM act.

Illegal immigrants have been busy in recent weeks “coming out” of the shadows to brazenly declare their perceived “right” to be here illegally in America. Fueled by fear and anger surrounding new state laws that are serious about halting illegal immigration, groups like the ACLU and the National Council of La Raza have organized protests, and ICE has frequently looked the other way. Many of the protesters are young “Dreamers” who are tenaciously awaiting passage of the DREAM act.

Georgia has recently passed an Arizona-type immigration law that is being challenged in federal courts. A key provision in the law is a requirement for employers to use E-Verify to determine if new hires are eligible to work in the United States. Two other provisions of the law were halted temporarily by a federal judge’s ruling this week. Those two provisions involve the ability of police to check an immigrant’s status, then potentially detain them, and also include knowingly transporting or harboring illegal immigrants.

“The apparent legislative intent is to create such a climate of hostility, fear, mistrust and insecurity that all illegal aliens will leave Georgia,” the federal judge irrationally surmised in his decision.

Governor Deal’s spokesman responded to the decision:

“Curiously, the court writes ‘all illegal aliens will leave Georgia’ if the law is enforced, as if it is appalled at the thought of people attaining visas before coming to our nation,”

The large population of illegal immigrants in Georgia is estimated to be around 425,000 according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The state ranks 7th among states with the highest saturation of illegal immigrants.

Following the federal court’s ruling on Georgia’s immigration law, protesters who were not satisfied with it took to the streets of Atlanta on June 28th to openly proclaim their illegal status.

Some protesters carried signs that read “undocumented and unafraid” while students sat in the middle of the road near the state Capitol blocking traffic. They were protesting Georgia’s immigration law as well as new policies in Georgia that bar students who are undocumented from attending certain state universities and colleges. Six students were taken into custody, and those 18 or older were headed for jail, even though the passive policies of ICE will likely lead to their release.

These organized protests have been breaking out all over the country and even occupied center stage inside a congressional hearing on the DREAM Act in Washington D.C. this week. The DREAM Act would provide a path to legalization for certain young people brought into the U.S. by their parents. The group of illegal “dreamers” attending Sen. Dick Durbin’s hearing inside our nation’s Capitol included several dozen students who proudly wore caps and gowns despite their undocumented status. Defying all logic, Sen. Durbin introduced the group of illegal immigrants to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano,

“They want to serve the country they love,” Durbin lamented. “All they want is a chance.”

However, many American citizens are also struggling in this economic downturn and desire a chance of their own, not to mention those immigrants who entered this country legally and deserve a chance at the opportunities for which they have sacrificed so much.

But groups like La Raza that champion an open-borders policy in America are currently winning the national debate. They have managed to obtain millions of dollars in federal funding to expand their influence and organizations and have access inside our government at the highest levels. Much of this funding, that is derived from various departments within our government, enables and empowers local, community-based organizations that agitate for more services and acceptance of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor was a member of La Raza for six years prior to Senate confirmation. Additionally, funding for the National Council of La Raza skyrocketed after Obama’s appointment of Cecilia Muñoz to serve as director of intergovernmental affairs in 2009. Prior to this appointment within our government, Muñoz was the senior vice president of La Raza. The new figure granted to La Raza after her appointment was a whopping 11 million in U.S. tax dollars. The administration had to issue a special “ethics waiver” since the president had promised throughout his campaign not to hire such lobbyists.

Meanwhile, naturalization statistics indicate that desires to become legal citizens of the United States have been quashed. Immigration statistics point to a steep decline in naturalizations.

In 2008, immigrants completing the naturalization process reached an all time high of over one million. The reason for this spike was likely due to “special efforts to encourage eligible applicants to apply for U.S. citizenship” and pending fee increases that would be levied in the future. Since then, naturalizations have declined steadily. In 2010, the number of persons choosing to naturalize was 619,913 down from the 2009 total of 743,715.

Given the climate of general acceptance of an increased illegal immigrant population from our government at its highest levels, including the U.S. Capitol itself, it is simply no wonder that the motivation to become a naturalized citizen has diminished. The assault on tougher immigration laws at the state level has effectively undermined the impact and benefits of those laws for now. It is more desirable for immigrants who enter our country illegally to patiently await amnesty rather than enduring the normal process of naturalization.

In the chaos created by drawn out, unresolved court challenges and capitulations to well-organized lobby groups funded by taxpayers to spread their open borders position, activists have been emboldened to appear publicly with little reason to fear apprehension by authorities or deportation by ICE. These events have been labeled “coming out” events as if they equate to being closet homosexuals. Inexplicably, some minority civil rights groups have taken up the mantle of protecting illegal immigrants as if their plight is due to their skin color rather than their legal status.

America welcomes immigrants who enter legally and embraces those who follow our nation’s laws, which provide a pathway to citizenship. On the other hand, Americans are growing ever more weary of civil disobedience and flagrant protests of our laws that petulantly demand civil rights for those who trespass our borders and our laws.

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
Visit Rhonda's Blog - One Conservative Voice

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Rhonda - The NLRB’s Bogus Claims against the Boeing Company

The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, is in the midst of a case against the Boeing Company because of its creation of a new branch in South Carolina. At a time when our economy is barely managing to grow at 1.8 percent and with a sustained unemployment rate of 9 percent, lodging a complaint against positive business expansion hardly seems appropriate. The Boeing Company is not cutting any jobs with this expansion of a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner aircraft into South Carolina, but is rather creating new ones.

The Boeing Company has already constructed a new location in the right-to-work state of South Carolina and has hired about 1,000 new employees. No jobs in the state of Washington have been impacted by Boeing’s expansion, in order to deal with a backlog of orders. However, Washington is a closed-shop union state and Boeing has been bogged down by an ongoing dispute there with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The union in Washington claims that Boeing’s move to South Carolina was retaliatory even though no jobs have been impacted in Washington in any way.

An opinion piece in the New York Times contained the following statement describing the NLRB’s claim:

“It may be a difficult case to prove, but the complaint filed last month by the National Labor Relations Board against Boeing is a welcome effort to defend workers’ right to collective bargaining.”

This editorial stance is entirely wrong headed in its clear anti-business perspective. To pretend that the NLRB’s complaint is anything other than an attempt at curtailing a corporations’ right to locate in right-to-work states is a farce. Collective bargaining agreements are being upheld not violated. There is no breech of the agreement between the Boeing Company and its employees. Collective bargaining has continued and all agreements between the two parties have been honored.

But where is the NLRB’s bent toward crushing American enterprises in right-to-work states originating? Not only was Obama financed by Big Labor in the amount of $60.7 million for his campaign, but he has also systematically sought to pack government agencies with radicals from within the labor movement.

The labor movement has been greatly rewarded for their campaign efforts. When Obama’s nominee to the NLRB was rejected by the Senate, he simply resorted to recess appointments. One nominee for the NLRB, Craig Becker, had served as general counsel for SEIU and the AFL-CIO. He had published his views promoting the bypassing of Congress through NLRB regulations that favor Big Labor. Becker was roundly defeated with a bipartisan vote of 52 to 33 in February of 2010.

The National Association of Manufacturers issued the following statement in praise of the Senate vote:

“The Senate recognized that the views of Mr. Becker are far outside the mainstream and ill-suited for a member of the NLRB.”

In spite of the bipartisan consensus in the Senate concerning the controversial nominees, Obama simply ignored the definitive vote and made a recess appointment later. Obama also made the NLRB appointment of Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon during Senate recess, and Solomon still has not been confirmed by the Senate.

When the Obama administration continued pursuing the appointment of this controversial nominee to the board, the Senate expressed concern about Becker in a prescient letter to the president that was signed by 41 Republican senators:

“His writings clearly indicate that he would use his position on the NLRB to institute far-reaching changes in labor law far exceeding the board’s authority and bypassing the role of Congress.”

The Senate’s concerns have become reality as the NLRB seeks to force Boeing to produce aircraft only in Washington.

Sen. Orrin Hatch voiced his opinion on the case sponsored by the NLRB:

"Seventeen months and a billion-dollar investment by Boeing later, the NLRB filed its complaint, which contains no substantive evidence of anti-union animus on the part of Boeing or of an adverse impact on the unionized workers in Washington — both of which are required to demonstrate the type of violation alleged in this case."

The Federal government does not have the legal authority to prohibit a company from expanding its business or building a new factory in another state. Court rulings have established that a union representative can never presume to be an equal partner in running a business.

Michael Luttig, executive vice president of Boeing, also serves as general counsel for Boeing. He made the following conclusions at a Senate committee hearing on May 12th:

“The board has never before ordered an employer actually to construct or expand a facility in a particular state in what is frankly a breathtaking substitution of the board for management in the running of an American company.”

Luttig also lamented the fact that hundreds of thousands of jobs might be lost as this case works its way through the federal courts after the upcoming June 14th hearing.

America needs jobs and successful businesses during this current economic morass. Only job creators can hire new employees while President Obama extols his own ability to expand the food stamp program. With Americans facing such a reality, is this an optimal time to enact policies that quell the expansion of healthy corporations and fraudulently claim damage to unionized workers?

The NLRB is on a rampage aimed at the Boeing Company’s expansion into South Carolina simply because it seeks to intimidate companies that locate in right-to-work states. The board’s unprecedented claims and interference are entirely bogus.

Rhonda

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Rhonda is a stay home mom of two and was a teacher for ten years. She is a graduate of Clemson University and lives in Georgia. She is dedicated to the conservative, Constitutional principles that have made America a great country.
Visit Rhonda's Blog - One Conservative Voice

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