In Sahara Reporters Aliyu Modibbo Umar writes about the present day Nigerian Emperors who run synthetic states:

Over the last ten years of our democratic life in Nigeria, state governors have deteriorated to become imperial lords where their actions and deeds are unquestionable by the electorate through the legislators of the state. A true legislative arm is to provide restraints to personal impulsiveness but this has been absent in most states of the federation. My argument does not foreclose the fact that there are no islands of integrity exhibited by some governors and legislators. There are, but a majority of these governors fit into the imperial template and this is worrisome.

The theory of realigning elections (sometimes called key elections, critical elections, or historic elections)is that sometimes there is a dramatic change in the political system that you can observe in one election or a couple elections in a row. Usually it coincides with the coming to power of a new coalition of voters or the movement of a large or important bloc of voters to a new coalition, these realigning elections occur when voters decidedly break in a new direction on a particularly important issues, when a new party leader emerges who takes the party in a new direction, when the regional and demographic bases of power of the two parties switches, or when there is a new rules of the political system (ie, expansion of suffrage). Because political parties in America tend to be rather stable coalitions, a sudden realignment by a voting group tends to have a longer-lasting and dramatic effect. These realigning elections seem to occur once a generation (every 30-40 years). V. O. Key, Jr. is the professor who pioneered the study of these elections.

Most experts agree that the following where clearly realigning elections- 1800 (Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson wins over Federalist John Adams), 1828 (Democrat Andrew Jackson wins over Democratic-Republican John Q. Adams), 1860 (Republican Abraham Lincoln wins over others), 1896 (Republican William McKinley wins over Democrat William Jennings Bryan), 1932 (Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins over Republican Herbert Hoover), 1968 (Republican Richard Nixon beats Democrat Hubert Humphrey), and 1980 (Republican Ronald Reagan beats Democrat Jimmy Carter). In each election, patterns in politics were broken and new patterns were put in place that lasted many years and large blocs of voters moved from one party to another. Based on the 30-40 years estimate, the next 'realigning election' is due 2012-2020.

Many though, because Barack Obama is black, want to say to say that the 2008 election (Democrat Barack Obama beats Republican John McCain) was a historic election, an unprecedented election, or a realigning election. Does it fit the model though?

There is support for the argument that it was a realigning election. There was an important issue that a candidate could have advanced a different view on (the War in Iraq), there were some realignments of geographical areas (surprisingly strong Democratic gains in the Northeast), and there was a change in the number of voters who declared themselves to belong to a particular party (dramatic rise in the number of voters who declared themselves to be Democrats). If Obama had run as a liberal- running on a liberal platform and advocating liberal issues and highlighting his sharp policy differences from the past- then 2008 would have been a realigning election.

But let's go back to last year. Watch the campaign commercials that Obama ran. Obama did not run as a liberal. He did not run on a platform that advocated stimulus packages, massive spending, large amounts of debt, pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan, nationalized healthcare, raising taxes, cap-and-tax, or government-take-overs of companies. Obama ran as a moderate. He ran as a new and different candidate, one who would not be liberal or conservative, but would reach across the aisle and be a post-partisan President. He talked about tax cuts and strong defense and ending corruption.

Obama ran as a moderate- on a moderate platform- and McCain was a moderate, and the gains in Congress for Democrats were mostly from moderate Blue Dogs, and the polls show the election map as being essentially the same as 1996-2004, so 2008 was not a historic, realigning, critical, key, or unprecedented election.

Obama's victory in 2008 is closer in its character to 1976 (Carter over Ford) or 1964 (LBJ over Goldwater) in that it represented simply dissatisfaction with the proposed candidate. The later unpopularity of Carter and LBJ did set the stage for the historic realigning elections that followed.

2012 will probably be the historic election that we are all looking for. Obama will be running as a liberal and will be seeking a mandate and approval for his policies- which this time around will be clearly liberal and far left. Voting blocs will have to move to vote for him, the map will have to change, and our nation will indeed embrace change with an Obama victory in 2012, setting the stage for likely Democrat control of government for 30-40 years and a shift in our nation farther to the left. If Obama loses, he will lose to a conservative candidate (the GOP is not going with another moderate- Romney, Pawleny, Palin, Huckabee, etc are all conservatives) running on a conservative platform, and it will mark a return to power for conservative Republicans and a move back to the right for our nation.

The recent data from 2009 supports my argument. Read Charles Krauthammer's article The Myth of '08, Demolished to see that the evidence is that 2012 will be re-aligning- areas that once consistently voted Democrat (like New Jersey) will switch and even moderate Republican candidates will be defeated by conservatives. The elections in 2010, in which Republicans will likely make big gains, will further vindicate my theory that 2008 was nothing more than just another ho-hum election and not the unprecedented, historic, realigning election that many on the left want it to be.

I received an email below announcing a new blog in Sacramento, California known as SAC Chartergate . It seems this blog was created by a group of Sacramento citizens who are interested in shining the light on Kevin Johnson, St Hope and the takeover of Sacramento High School.

Who is SAC Chartergate: According to their blog they value the public trust and true accountability from their elected and appointed leaders. They represent parents, neighbors and community members who still believe in Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ words about governance and public policy making: “sunlight is the best disinfectant ." Well who better to shine the light on the Kevin Johnson/Michelle Rhee story then citizens from Sacramento. Here is their email as well as Sac Chartergate’s first entry titled: Making The Grades With Kevin Johnson.

Hi Candi:

"Just a quick note to send you this link to our new blog in Sacramento: http://sacchartergate.blogspot.com/ The point of this is to get out there any and all information we can find regarding the sad saga of the Sacramento High School give away in the service of Kevin Johnson’s (and Michelle Rhee’s) rise to power.  Take a look and spread the link around your neck of the woods.  More to come from us. "- L. Jablonski and all the outraged citizens here in Sac Town

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Making the Grades with Kevin Johnson

 New allegations that mayor Kevin Johnson offered hush money to a young Hood Corps volunteer who complained of his unwanted sexual advances splashed across media outlets around the country last week.  The story has national legs given the zeal of congressional Republicans to underscore the involvement of Obama Administration officials in the dismissal of Inspector General Gerald Walpin, whose findings related to the illegal use of federal funds by St. Hope included the revelations.

 Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Washington DC schools and Kevin Johnson's fiance, also has a role in the latest saga due to allegations she mishandled the Hood Corps volunteer's complaint while serving as a St. Hope official and also intervened with Inspector General Walpin on behalf of Johnson.  We will have questions about Rhee in a later post. 

 All of this plays out in the broader context of Johnson's controversial "strong mayor" proposal to change the city charter.    The bloggers at BossMayor.com   believe this latest revelation underscores Mayor Johnson's lack of judgment and "outright creepiness," given that reports of inappropriate sexual contact with girls date back to Johnson's basketball days in Phoenix in the mid-1990s.

 While we certainly agree with the creepiness factor, we can't just stop there.  The willingness of so many people in Sacramento to ignore or explain away for so long this alleged pattern of behavior is supremely troubling, especially since Johnson was handed over a public high school with young girls in his charge.  More on this later too.

 For now, we would like to take this in a different direction. Walpin's investigation into the alleged sexual misconduct includes the following:

"One Member, (redacted) reported that, in the February/March 2007 time frame, she was entering grades into the SAC High database system per Mr. Johnson's instructions at the St. Hope office at night, purportedly as part of her Americorps service.  (Redacted) contacted Mr. Johnson to inform him that she had completed the grades and wanted him to review them.   About 11:00 pm, Mr. Johnson arrived at St. Hope and instructed (redacted) to gather her things and come with him.  Mr. Johnson drove to (redacted) apartment, in which another Americorps Member had a separate bedroom, Mr. Johnson laid down on (redacted) bed.  (Redacted) sat on the edge of the bed to show him the grades..."

Our Questions:  

Why was an Americorps (Hoodcorps) volunteer entering grades into the Sac High database alone late at night, without oversight by teachers or registrar?*

Whose grades? And for what class or classes?   

Why would Mr. Johnson, who does not have a teaching or administrative credential, be instructing an Americorps volunteer to enter grades and then be reviewing the grades the volunteer entered?   

Did Mr. Johnson regularly "touch" the grades at Sacramento Charter High School? 

Who, other than teachers and the registrar, are able to "touch" the grades at Sacramento Charter High School?

 *State Education Code Regarding Grades

49066. (a) When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a school district, the grade given to each pupil shall be the grade determined by the teacher of the course and the determination of the pupil's grade by the teacher, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, shall be final.

(b) The governing board of the school district and the superintendent of such district shall not order a pupil's grade to be changed unless the teacher who determined such grade is, to the extent practicable, given an opportunity to state orally, in writing, or both, the reasons for which such grade was given and is, to the extent practicable, included in all discussions relating to the changing of such grade.

Posted by The Washington Teacher, featuring Candi Peterson, Blogger in residence, story courtesy of SAC CHARTERGATE blog

In today's Detroit News, there was a story about the police breaking up protests at a recent World Trade Organization meeting. The WTO is a group that is determined to make a more peaceful and prosperous world by lowering tariffs and removing barriers to trade, and there are people out there that do not like peace and prosperity, instead preferring anarchism and nationalism, and so every time the WTO has a meeting, there are protests.

These protesters typically pull themselves into what is called a Black Bloc. A black bloc is a tactic for protests and marches, whereby individuals wear black clothing, ski masks and motorcycle helmets with padding, steel-toed boots and often carrying their own shields and truncheons. The clothing is used to avoid being identified, and to theoretically, appear as one large mass, promoting solidarity, and creating a clear revolutionary presence. Tactics of a black bloc can include vandalism, rioting and street fighting, demonstrating without a permit, misleading the authorities, assisting in the escape of people arrested by the police, building barricades, and attacking police.

In Geneva, these 'peaceful protesters' set fire to cars, broke shop windows and committed other acts of violence. An 80-year-old women was knocked over and fell and had to be hospitalized, police said. These are the tactics of these 'far left' or 'far right' or 'middle way' groups who demonstrate against the WTO.

You can tell the quality of a person by the company they keep. These Black Bloc groups oppose lower tariffs, oppose capitalism, oppose the war in Iraq, and support Earth Day. Do you?

These anti-WTO protester's are an interesting mix of left-wing groups ranging from the outright communist (Autonomism) to the clearly fascist (National-Anarchism). Many of the issues and causes these groups promote are very close to the causes and issues that the Democrats support today- the main difference is in the methods used, not the goals. These left wing fascist and communist groups blame the United States for being at the root of most bad things in the world, want the US to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and let the terrorists win, want to have the government play a larger and larger role in 'combating global warming' and 'supporting gay rights,' and even believe in free state-provided healthcare for everyone.

Yes indeed, there are many similarities between these Black Bloc groups and the Democratic Party. What there isn't is any similarities between the goals, methods, and agenda of this blog and those who support Black Blocs. We are clearly different in our agenda's, as I am a conservative teacher who supports lower tariffs, loves capitalism, supports the War on Terror, opposes government control to fight the myth of global warming, and loves freedom and liberty more than violence and revolutionary zeal.

Change might live on the left, but so does the Black Bloc. Pick your side.

In 234Next Ayo Okulaja reports:

“The only way to fight corruption that is endemic to the entire world is to develop a culture that rejects corruption in the formative years; that is in schools and at home.” This was the postulation of the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Bin Mohamad.

As theblogprof points out, at the end of pretty much every single episode of Scooby Doo, the bad ghost/ghoul/monster that was trying to scare everyone away from the truth is unmasked as a fraud for all to see, only to say "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those darned kids." From the beginning, this was my theory on the whole global warming issue, and it looks like those darned bloggers and Freedom of Information acts have unmasked the ghost of global warming and revealed it for the fraud that it is.

The 'Global Warming Issue' was built on several bad premises. First is that the globe is warming. Contrary to Al Gore telling me it is, the data is not conclusive that the Earth is warming at all- we had a warm 1990's, but the data is not clear that this decade was all that warm. In order to persuade people that the Earth indeed is warming, data has been doctored, cherry-picked, and massaged to produce some sort of result that does show that the Earth is warming. But since Earth is emerging from a recent Little Ice Age, I would not be terribly shocked if eventually trends would indeed show that we are warming up.

The next part of the Issue is that this warming trend will continue in one direction, and will also accelerate and we'll get warmer and warmer and then turn into Venus. It is a nice theory, and to back it up, they've relied on computer modeling that can't even predict tomorrows weather accurately, and the computer models themselves have used doctored data and illogical calculations to produce this run-away-global-warming model. It is at this point that I become an unbeliever, since I don't see any possibility of run-away global warming, rather I see a billions of year trend of warming and cooling and the Earth being mightier than us puny humans.

The next part of the Issue is that this global warming is man-made. As evidence of this, 'scientists' break out their theories and show some stuff working in some labs. But just because I have a theory that I can pull a coin out of your ear and do it once doesn't mean that everyone everywhere has coins falling out of their ears. In reality, humans impact on the environment, especially the global temperatures, is very limited. A volcano going off does more to impact the globe than you driving your SUV, and thus the ultimate cause of any warming is natural, not man-made. That's not to say that you shouldn't be mindful of your environment, but the proper approach is the exact opposite of what Global Warming Believers want, and the proper approach is increased private property rights and less tragedies of the commons.

There are people out there though who Believe- they hate God and attack anyone who believes in him, but they worship at the alter of the Green God and believe in man-made run-away global warming in spite of the lack of evidence, the faulty data, and the bad premises. They then advance to the next stage, which is that this man-made global warming is very very bad and a bigger threat to everyone's life than war, poverty, hunger, or any other really bad issue. If the globe warms than bad stuff will occur- you name it, global warming believers believe that it will happen. In reality what might happen is a better growing environment for many crops and expanding food supply, warmer weather demanding less energy to heat homes and businesses, and a generally spring-like feel to the world. Global warming actually might be good for everyone, if you can get over the fact that polar bears might have to migrate farther north (oh, the horror!).

Yes, the global warming myth is increasingly being proved to be just that- a myth. And those who fight the most to keep this myth in place are in reality those who are benefiting from the myth- Al Gore has made millions on peddling this myth, makers of wind turbines and solar panels have made millions more, and most government bureaucrats and corruption agents are out there peddling the myth while making money off of it. So be one of those darned kids, and expose the myth, and laugh at anyone who tries to sell it to you, because in the end, like at the end of most Scooby Doo cartoons, the whole thing is only worth one big laugh.

In Aidwatch:

Is Ethiopia having a famine? As often is the case, there are two forces pulling in opposite directions that make it hard to answer the question...On the one hand, the authoritarian government wants to cover up any famine to mute criticism of its performance...On the other hand, NGOs have a well known tendency to cry wolf and exaggerate—to see famine where there is no famine—perhaps in order to raise more money for their own organization

Bubacarr Sankanu writes in Africa Council

The prophets of intolerance cannot seriously claim to be defending African Values as all the monotheistic religions they are using to argue are foreign imports. It is the serious Voodoo Practitioners like those of the Republic of Benin who can talk about defending the true African Values. In fact no one can talk about bringing faith/salvation to Africans, be it monotheist or otherwise.

In April I wrote about a story that I saw in the Detroit News about the Coon Man (Coon Hunting, A Bear Named Obama, Teleprompters, Queen Touching, and Bush Fighting Zombies), and today there was a follow up to it in the Detroit News. Here is what I wrote when the story first came out:

Next, according to the Detroit News, a new industry is starting up in Detroit, and I suspect that it actually is the fast-growing industry in the city (other than working for the government). The new industry is urban hunting and skinning. Yes, like a scene out of I Am Legend, the wilderness is retaking the city of Detroit, and the animal population is moving into areas that were once inhabited by productive men. Years of Democrat control in action!

The story in the Detroit News is the story of a young 69-year old entrepreneur, who has to supplement his Social Security checks by hunting raccoons in the city of Detroit. Apparently this guy kills coons with the help of his rifle and coon dog, butchers the meat, and sells it to local residents, and he also sells the skins- but doesn't pay taxes on these sales (must be a Democrat). The meat is not USDA approved (probably something to do with rabies), but the video about the story (go to the link for the article to watch it and howl with laughter) shows coon meat being served with liver and onions and Faygo red pop- just the way mom made it!

Via Students For Academic Freedom we find out that Central Michigan University has derecognized and revoked the registered student organization privileges of Campus Conservatives for hosting nationally-known conservative author and commentator David Horowitz on Oct. 14, 2008.

Student Life assistant director Tom Idema sent an e-mail message dated Friday to Campus Conservatives president Bryant Greiner indicating the school’s oldest political club and only outlet for conservative students was no longer “recognized as a registered student organization and granted the privileges that are associated with being a RSO.”

No explanation or reason was given for the de-recognizing of the club, but sources indicate that it was because Tom didn't like David Harowitz and decided to abuse the power of the office to get revenge on those who were bringing Mr. Harowitz in to speak. Apparently Tom is an intolerant, hate-filled man who likes to discriminate against others who do not share his views, and is willing to use and abuse the power of his position at a public university to force his hate-filled intolerant views on others.

Tom Idema didn't even have the authority to take this measure, as according to the student handbook, there is a process that one has to go through before revoking the standing of a registered student organization, which includes notification and a hearing that affords a student organization its due process rights, neither of which were done. Tom apparently doesn't care though about due process, individual rights, liberty, freedom, or diversity, instead pushing a liberal agenda and attempting to shut down any group that offers up alternative views.

Without standing as a registered student organization, Campus Conservatives was unable to reserve a room at any CMU facilities, and are being forced to meet as fugitives in public rooms within facilities. But this is the not the first time that publicly-funded CMU has attempted to destroy conservative voices on campus.

CMU has tried repeatedly since February to charge Campus Conservatives for security provided by school police officers at last October’s event with Horowitz. The organization has steadfastly refused to pay for police protection, citing a letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education legal defense group to then-CMU president Michael Rao warning that such a charge would be unconstitutional under the decision Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement . CMU has made no attempts to charge any other student organization for police services, singling out only the conservative voices on campus for expressing voices that the university disagrees with.

In October 2001, CMU students were prohibited from displaying the American flag on doors to student dorms because it was “offensive” to Muslim students. Under threat of litigation from FIRE, the unconstitutional prohibition was dropped.

For more information about this story, including how you can help, please contact cmucampusconservatives@gmail.com.

To contact your legislator about this event and encourage them to cease funding a public university that acts in such a manner, find and email your Michigan House member by clicking here.

To contact someone at Central Michigan University to express your outrage, try contacting Student life at studentlife@cmich.edu, or Alumni Relations at alumni@cmich.edu, or the Student Ombuds Office at ombuds@cmich.edu, or contact members of the Board of Trustees by going to this link and then emailing various members.

Although I don't like to celebrate, I can't help but have questions about how the Commerce Department's estimate of economic growth was so off. Instead of the gross domestic product growing at a 'robust and energetic' rate of 3.5 percent as reported a month ago, it turns out the economy only grew at an anemic and halting rate of 2.8 percent last quarter.

One of the most important jobs of the Commerce Department is to simply calculate one statistic, and this government agency can't even do that accurately. And it was not off by a small amount either- the difference between 3.5 and 2.8 is the difference between 3.5 and 4.7- and those are meaningful differences.

Do not be fooled by that 2.8 GDP growth rate either- that growth rate includes government spending, which was a mind boggling number last quarter. Imagine if you dropped massive amounts of spending on your credit card for several months- would you be any richer and more prosperous because of that? No, you wouldn't- the growth rate would be artificial and in the long-run dangerously bad, because of the interest you would have to pay on that debt. And yet, this is what our government is doing today- engaging in a reckless spending policy that is dangerous and going to destroy our nation.

Nicholas N. Kofie writes in 'Voices' a world forum for music therapy:

Music (therapy) has been part of the Ghanaian traditional healer's stock-in-trade. Music accompanies the priest's suite (of dances) and increases in intensity up to the point when the priest/priestess enters the semi-conscious trance state and starts to communicate with the ancestral spirits. That is how far music is used by the would-be therapist as a stimulus.

"When law is without order and  justice is far from just, someone must take a stand !"

Emmanuel Ashong-Katai of Ghana's SEC writes:

...the unlisted securities market holds much promise for the private sector and the growth of the national economy. Its effective and efficient development will unleash the creative potential of the Ghanaian private sector by turning ideas and inventions into marketable products both locally and internationally. It will also induce efficiencies in the entire financial system - It will force commercial banks to improve their services and reduce their lending rates to the SME sector as the unlisted market provides them with an alternative and reliable source of long- term capital.

Over at First Thoughts I saw this post that is an interest to anyone who is following the attempts by the Democrats to nationalize 1/6 of the US economy- Senate Version of Obamacare May Require Public Option to Cover Assisted Suicide.

That's right boys and girls, in addition to your tax money going to support abortion (likely in Senate version) and supporting panels that will consul seniors to just die instead of costing the system more (Death Panels Are in the Healthcare Bill ), your tax money is also going to be funding people who kill other people.

Check out section 1323 of the bill creating the public option (p. 183), beginning at page 186:
(F) PROTECTING ACCESS TO END OF LIFE CARE.—A community health insurance option offered under this section shall be prohibited from limiting access to end of life care.

If assisted suicide, or even euthanasia, are legally considered forms of “end of life care” in a particular state–as it is now the case in Oregon, Washington, and Montana–it seems to me that the community health insurance option would be required to provide “access” to assisted suicide under this clause.

This 'healthcare bill' has to be one of the most morbid bills ever- a bill that gives money and support and funding to killing people in many different ways. It is not shocking that people who value human life oppose its passage. What is stunning to me is that people who value human life support its passage. IT GIVES MONEY TO KILL PEOPLE. Abortion, death panels, assisted suicide- they're all in the bill. What kind of a country pays to kill people?

Chude Jideonwo writes about the challenges of the fashion industry in Farafina:

“Every designer’s work in Nigeria is couture,” Debbie Ogunjobi of Everywoman stores in Lagos said a few years ago, “because, there’s no ability to mass produce.”...he challenge lies in bringing back the spark, and with the new spark, a jolt of sustainability. Some experts have pointed to investment—building the industry to a level where businessmen and corporate players can invest much-needed funds that come with the burden of achieving concrete financial results. After the cameras have stopped clicking, it really comes down to the money.

Fatima Sadiqi writes in Common Ground News Service:

Women in North Africa have made tremendous progress in promoting and upholding their rights. Women in this region—commonly known as the Maghreb—are at the forefront of the Arab world in terms of individual rights and gender equality, and constitute models for other Arab women to follow. A number of lessons may be drawn from the inspiring experience of women in North Africa, especially in Morocco and Tunisia.

The healthcare debate frustrates me and confuses me because I simply don't understand why certain groups are supporting the drive for nationalized healthcare. The AARP is urging its dwindling members to back a proposal that will cut from Medicare, provide funds for assisted suicide and death panels, and encourage the system to start rationing healthcare. Why would the AARP support this agenda? Why are you still a member of the AARP?

Why does the UAW support the healthcare plan by the Democrats? If I'm GM or Chrysler or Ford and I have two options of paying for healthcare for my employees or shoving them on the government plan and saving all that money, I'm shoving them on the government plan. The UAW is supporting a plan that would trade the quality coverage it has already bargained for with the government plan.

Although perhaps UAW understands that the fix is in- the government plan will a better plan than whatever the UAW has, because it will be funded on the backs of taxpayers to the cost of trillions of dollars over ten years, and trillions more over the next 10 years, if the United States lasts that long as a nation with that kind of spending and debt.

I don't understand the debate at all- there is no money for this program, it will raise costs, it will cause millions to be dropped from current plans, it will destroy the private insurance industry and lead to a loss in all of those tax dollars that industry provides, and it has many controversial and polarizing provisions in it like money for abortions (cut out of House version but in Senate version), money for assisted suicide, money for death panels, and many other controversial provisions.

The way this bill is being sold is by having people each share their sob story- that's anecdotal evidence that is nice, but should not be determining whether the bill is passed or not. Senator Debbie Stabenow is running a special interest lobbying group on her official Senate webpage (is that legal?) called Health Care People's Lobby (people's lobby... paging Soviet Russia...) where she encourages people to email her their sob stories about dealing with the insurance industry. Almost 10,000 people have emailed her various stories of how they where not able to take more advantage of an insurance system and how they were not able to get someone else to pay for their health-related procedures. This is the kind of 'evidence' that is being pushed as a reason to nationalize healthcare? I just don't understand why people are falling for this garbage argument.