D.C. Parents Call on Congress to Put the Needs of Kids Ahead of Special Interest Politics

Vote Expected Next Week on Extension of D.C. School Choice Program

Families from across the District of Columbia called on Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to restore the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) and provide hope to thousands of low-income children.

According to D.C. Parents for School Choice, legislation sponsored by House Speaker John Boehner (the SOAR Act) will likely lead to higher graduation rates for low-income D.C. children, higher parental satisfaction rates with education, increased achievement in reading, and a significant improvement in D.C.'s public schools. A vote on the legislation is expected by next week.

"We call on all Members of Congress to put the interests of children and families first and to vote 'yes' on Speaker Boehner's legislation," said Virginia Walden Ford, executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice. "It is morally outrageous that President Obama, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and special interests have waged a battle against a program that helps low-income children who live just blocks from the White House. Passing the SOAR Act will right this grievous wrong."

The program, which allows low-income parents the opportunity to use vouchers and send their children to high-quality private schools, has yielded significant, positive results.

According to a study by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences, the program yielded 91 percent graduation rates for students who used their scholarships - more than 30 points higher than the graduation rates for students in conventional public schools. More than 3,300 children have benefited from the program since its creation in 2004.

A poll released earlier this year demonstrated that more than 74 percent of District residents want Congress to reauthorize the program, and more than 8,000 residents have signed petitions urging the OSP's restoration.

"Parents across the country are watching Congress right now to see if their Members will do the right thing and stand courageously with children who only want a better future - or if they'll side with richly-funded special interest groups that place adults and the status quo above the needs of low-income families," Walden Ford said.

A companion bill in the U.S. Senate is sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman, Susan Collins, Dianne Feinstein, and Lamar Alexander.

Virginia Walden Ford is the Executive Director of D.C. Parents for School Choice. She is an African-American single mother who almost single-handedly lobbied Congress to enact the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program after she secured a private scholarship for her son, William, who later went on to graduate and then serve our country in Iraq. Virginia is a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and also speaks on behalf of the Foundation for Educational Choice. She was an advisor to John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008. Interestingly, she’s from Little Rock, Arkansas and was in the second group of children to integrate Little Rock Central High School. [more...]

THE QUR'AN DILEMMA

THE QUR'AN DILEMMA

COMPELLING BOOK SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON THE QUR'AN

 

Radical Islam, Sharia Law, Jihad are all common themes often raised and discussed whenever Islam is at the forefront of current events in the U.S.  However, all of these labels share the same foundation: The Qur'an. 

How is one to know the truth about The Qur'an - the most controversial holy book in the world today, especially post-9/11?  Now, the average person who wants to understand the controversies and myths surrounding The Qur'an will be able to know the truth by studying The Qur'an Dilemma - a critical analysis unlike any other. The top editor of this 10-year-long research project, Al Fadi, is available for interviews to analyze and discuss this comprehensive new guide on the teachings of Islam.

This extensively researched commentary examines Islam's holiest book, challenging serious readers to ponder its true origin and purposes as they increase their knowledge of Islam and its teachings.

• Is The Qur'an a book of peace or a blueprint for terror?
• Is Islam's holy book an inspired message from God or a political agenda?
• How is the role of a woman actually defined in The Qur'an?
• Does The Qur'an really advocate tolerance for people of other faiths?

This first volume investigates the first nine chapters of The Qur'an. Each chapter contains the text of The Qur'an complemented with these well-annotated elements:

• Introduction, which outlines major subjects and key political, historical, social, or controversial issues;
• Critical analysis of key verses, which focuses on relevant historical accounts, linguistical errors, scientific information, and literary structure, coherence, and cogency;
• Variant readings of certain verses, which highlight differences in syntax, word choice, and meaning among current common readings of the Arabic text, emphasizing those variations that differ from the codification made by the 'Uthman committee; and
• Abrogated verses with analytical comments, which explain the ramifications of such nullified verses on their subsequent authority and understanding.

This volume also contains nine articles to provide readers with the necessary background and context concerning key topics and issues of The Qur'an, including "Compilation of The Qur'an," "Women in The Qur'an," and "The Qur'an and People of Other Faiths." The last section of this book contains a comprehensive collection of resources and references, included selected readings, a "Who's Who" section, a glossary of definitions, timeline and maps, index and endnotes (the complete documentation of the Arabic and non-Arabic sources used in the research for this book).

Though The Qur'an Dilemma uses Islamic classical references to satisfy the scholar, this commentary is written in a fluid language that will interest, inform, and enlighten the average reader.

ABOUT THE EDITOR: Al Fadi is a scholar and expert on Islam, and a leading Middle East analyst.  He has a Masters in Biblical Communications, Engineering, and is a teacher of Islam.  He is also the Director of The Qur'an Project Group and a guest speaker for national churches and mission conferences' events on the topic of Islam.  He has been on numerous Arabic satellite TV shows and is a frequent guest on radio and TV throughout America, educating the U.S. on the topic of Islam and The Qur'an.

DICK MORRIS LAUNCHES THE DICK MORRIS POLL

DICK MORRIS LAUNCHES THE DICK MORRIS POLL WITH FIRST PUBLICIZED POLL OF WISCONSIN VOTERS ON ISSUES IN THE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES PROTEST

New York, NY, February 25, 2011 -- Dick Morris, a veteran pollster with thirty years of experience in national and international polling, is announcing the launch of The Dick Morris Poll, which will focus on timely political issues and candidates. Drawing on his polling expertise, Dick will provide the results and an analysis of each poll.

Dick Morris was President Clinton's pollster for 20 years, and has done polling for 30 Senators and Governors and 14 presidents or prime ministers in foreign countries.

The Dick Morris Poll, to be published at least once a month, will use the traditional polling method of telephone calls to registered voters. On occasion, Internet polls will be done of a carefully drawn random sample of likely voters - in order to avoid the bias of relying only on those participants with a political predisposition.

The initial poll is the first published poll of voters conducted within the state of Wisconsin and was completed on Monday, February 21, 2011 and Tuesday, February 22, 2011.

WISCONSIN POLL RESULTS

The Dick Morris Poll conducted a telephone survey among 409 likely Wisconsin voters. The survey has a margin of error of +- 4%.

Findings: Wisconsin voters break almost evenly on Governor Walker's proposed reforms, supporting them by a margin of 51-47.

They support many aspects of the proposal by significant numbers:

VOTERS SUPPORT CHANGING THE BENEFITS TO STATE WORKERS, PAY, AND AUTOMATIC DEDUCTION OF UNION DUES

By 74-18, they back making state employees pay more for their health insurance.
By 79-16, they support asking state workers to contribute more toward their pensions.
By 54-34, Wisconsin voters support ending the automatic deduction of union dues from state paychecks and support making unions collect dues from each member.
By 66-30, they back limiting state workers' pay increases to the rate of inflation unless voters approve a higher raise by a public referendum.

VOTERS OPPOSE CHANGING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS

On the issue of limiting collective bargaining to wage and benefit issues, however, they break with the Governor, opposing the proposal by 41-54.

If the issues to be taken off the bargaining table are related to giving schools flexibility to modify tenure, pay teachers based on merit, discharge bad teachers and promote good ones, however, they support such limits on collective bargaining by 58-38.

ANALYSIS: Voters back the principal of collective bargaining. But they are also willing to limit these negotiations so that they would not impede education reforms.

For Governor Walker to prevail, he must focus on his goal of achieving reform in schools. He will not prevail as long as his proposal is essentially negative in nature (i.e., limiting collective bargaining). But if he emphasizes the positive intent that lies behind the proposal (i.e., giving schools the flexibility and freedom to implement education reforms), he will find a solid public majority behind him.

Dick Morris's "Revolt!" Has Arrived!

Now that the Republicans have taken the House, how can they use their majority to reverse Obama's Socialist agenda?

REVOLT!

How to Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Dick Morris

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How do we defund and block Obamacare?

How can the Republicans cut government spending?

How can we block tax increases?

How do we stop Obama's FC from crippling talk radio and taking over the Internet?

How do we stop the EPA from imposing cap and trade?

How do we reverse the job-killing big-government policies of Obama?

...And how do we defeat President Barack Obama in 2012?

Dick Morris provides the answers in this up-to-the-minute discussion of how the new Republican House of Representatives can defeat Obama and the Democrats. Dick should know; he strategized Bill Clinton's defeat of the GOP Congress in 1995-96. Now he applies his knowledge to reversing, repealing, and replacing Obama's Socialist programs - and helping the American economy live and prosper again. It's all here. The strategy, the tactics, and what each of us must do to save our country from Obama's socialism.

REVOLT!: How to Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs lays out a game plan for success. Morris explains how to use the debt limit and budget fights to force Obama to accept Republican policies while, at the same time, undermining his chances of victory in 2012.

• Obamacare? Morris explains how to block the IRS enforcement of the requirement that everyone buy health insurance and how to stop the Medicare cuts and rationing.

• Crippling Talk Radio and Taking Over the Internet? He explains how to prevent the FCC from blocking free speech in America.

• Cap and Trade? He offers a blueprint for how to cut off EPA funding to stop it from imposing carbon taxes and regulation.

Unless we read Dick's plan and act to implement it, Obama will raise taxes, end the mortgage interest and charitable deduction, raise Social Security taxes, and add trillions more to the federal deficit in the process. Conservatives need to fight back and Morris explains how to do it.

REVOLT! is Dick's most important book yet. The GOP won the elections of 2010. REVOLT! explains how to translate this avalanche of votes into power and action in Washington. His plea: Don't surrender. Don't compromise. Don't give in. Just push ahead and win! REVOLT! is the next step.

Morris's Outrage, Fleeced, Catastrophe, and 2010: Take Back America laid out the problem, predicted Obama's polices and their results, and articulated a plan for victory in 2010. Now REVOLT! explains how to use this new power to defeat Obama.

New film documents how adult interests are turning schools into 'dropout factories'

Assembly-line model to blame

"Kids Aren't Cars" is a new short film series set for national release February 1st.  Using examples from the Midwest, it documents the negative impact organized labor has had on the American education system, creating a one-size-fits-all assembly line model that leaves students behind and treats teachers the same, regardless of their skill level and classroom effectiveness, stifling innovation and improvement.

See the trailer here.  The films will be released two per week - Tuesdays and Thursdays - at KidsArentCars.com, beginning February 1st.  A total of 9 released are planned.

Our government education system has been spending more and more each year, yet the results have been the same.  While unions demand higher spending - which of course ends up in the pockets of their members - student test scores remain static.

"Kids Aren't Cars" tells the story through the words of education veterans who have been in the trenches and have watched our schools deteriorate.

  

An executive director of a literacy clinic in Detroit - where high school graduates go to learn how to read - compares the actions of the pro-union school board to the Ku Klux Klan.  "If they were sitting up there in Klan robes," she said, "we would be marching and screaming." [Eight of the 9 school board members are black.]

It tells the story of two Indiana teachers recognized statewide for their impact on students, only to be fired literally the next day because they lacked seniority of their co-workers.

It reveals details about a union-owned insurance company that forces its expensive health coverage on public schools in Michigan, stealing millions that could be spent on students. A former executive director of the company admits that it's a scam to raise millions for the teachers unions at the expense of taxpayers and students.

Numerous leaders sound the alarm throughout the series of films, but do elected leaders have the courage to stand up to the all-powerful teachers' unions?  "Kids Aren't Cars" illustrates the dire need for our leaders to take action and reform our public schools before it's too late. The United States continues to slip globally, with student achievement lagging behind nations like Iceland and Hungary.

"Our public school system, under union domination for the past four decades, is now designed to benefit adults, at the expense of children," said Kyle Olson, founder of Education Action Group and director of the film series. "The focus has been on spending - which invariably ends up in pay, health benefits and retirement for the employees, but everyone has forgotten about the kids.

"'Kids Aren't Cars'" is an unflinching look at the state of public education in America and what can be done about it,” Olson said.

Kitty Kelley's "Oprah" Out in Paperback

Internationally Acclaimed Investigative Biographer Kitty Kelley

Tackles her most fascinating subject yet - a Woman of Unparalleled

Power and Influence in American Society

The #1 NEW YORK TIMES  Bestseller

*UPDATED AND REVISED*

           

Kitty Kelley adds new material that includes:

• Ms. Winfrey and her family’s reaction to the 2010 publication
• The media’s boycotting of the book
• New financial information about Oprah’s Angel Network
• ...and more of the eponymous television star in her own words from her latest interviews.
• Also, Oprah’s first cousin, Jo Baldwin, who served as a vice president of Harpo, Inc. from 1986-1988, finally comes forward after 20 years of silence to tell her stories.    

JUST IN TIME FOR THE DEBUT OF OPRAH’s TELEVISION NETWORK: OWN, THE OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK

For the past three decades, master investigative biographer Kitty Kelley has made her mark by writing penetrating examinations of living cultural icons, without their cooperation and independent of their control. Each of her four previous books - on Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British royals, and the Bush family dynasty - was a number one bestseller and made international news.  Now with OPRAH: A Biography, she tackles her most fascinating and formidable subject yet, delivering a comprehensive, rigorously researched, and compulsively readable portrait of a unique American personage who transcends celebrity and who has left an indelible imprint on our society, even as she has sought to change it.

Rising from the humblest of origins, Oprah Winfrey has become one of the most admired women in the world. Adored by millions for her many good works, she is an exemplar of black achievement in a white society, an African American who broke the barriers of discrimination to achieve unparalleled success. The first black female billionaire, she is idolized not only because of her net worth of approximately $2.4 billion, but because she has built her fortune herself, without benefit of marriage or inheritance. The most influential media personality of all time, she has branded her wildly successful television show as a confessional for celebrities and news makers, coaxing her guests to bare their love lives, divulge their deepest secrets, admit their transgressions, explore their painful pasts and personal tragedies, and confront their demons in a form of public therapy that has come to be known as "Oprahfication."

Yet as much as Oprah is loved, she is also feared. Even as she has won millions of devoutly loyal followers by presenting herself as a warm and embracing "everywoman" who shares the same struggles and preoccupations as her predominantly female audience members, she has become increasingly wary and mistrustful of those around her. Fiercely protective of her name and image, she has stopped giving interviews and responds to the press mostly through publicists rather than directly. Since 1995, she has required all her employees to sign confidentiality agreements, swearing never to reveal anything about her, her business, her personal life, her friends, or her associates to anyone at anytime. Almost everyone who enters her realm must sign these agreements, and the prospect of being sued keeps many - but not all - people silent. Others are afraid to talk simply for fear of offending someone famous or of losing a coveted opportunity to sell their products on her show or in her magazine.

Penetrating her subject’s carefully guarded public image, Kitty Kelley offers, in revealing detail, an intimate look at every aspect of Oprah’s dramatic private life: the truth behind the legend of Oprah as a dirt-poor, fatherless black child neglected by her teenage mother; her complicated feelings about race and her own skin color; her constant battle with her weight; her dysfunctional romantic relationships with men and her close friendships with women, including Gayle King; her enigmatic and passionless life partnership with Stedman Graham; her lavish spending on herself and her friends; her heavy drug abuse during her twenties; her family’s many secrets, including the identity of her biological father; and her conflicted relationships with her mother, her siblings, her father, Vernon Winfrey, and her cousin Katharine Carr Esters, who admires her accomplishments but abhors what she calls "Oprah's lies."

With empathy and insight, Kitty Kelley examines Oprah's early childhood in rural Mississippi; the sexual abuse she suffered as a girl; the tragic circumstances of her unwanted teenage pregnancy; and her adolescent promiscuity, which, as Kelley reveals for the first time, led Oprah to describe herself as a prostitute in a 1993 autobiography that she withdrew from publication. Taking readers beyond Oprah’s own carefully staged personal confessions, she explains how Oprah’s experience of being sexually abused, coupled with her feelings of being unloved and deprived as a child, have fueled not only her drive to achieve unparalleled success, but also her excessive need for control and her insatiable hunger to be the center of attention and to be approved and applauded.

During more than three years of research and reporting, Kitty Kelley obtained court records, birth certificates, and financial and tax reports. She conducted interviews with 850 sources, including family, friends, classmates, coworkers, employees, and professional associates of Oprah, many of whom have never previously spoken about her for publication. And she gathered every interview that her subject has granted over the past twenty-five years, creating 2,732 separate files, enabling her to use Oprah’s own words with surety and to build an uncompromisingly accurate psychological profile. “Sometimes,” writes Kelley, “her public reflections did not jibe with the private recollections of others, but even the truths she shaved, as well as those she shared, added dimension to her fascinating persona.”

The remarkable woman who emerges in OPRAH is more complicated and nuanced than the carefully tended myth of her persona allows. Her philosophy of life, as presented in her eponymous magazine, is a curious mix of unapologetic materialism and uplifting spirituality.  She can be generous, magnanimous, and deeply caring, but also imperious, small-minded, and self-centered. Capable of great warmth and openness, she can be closed, calculating, and cold as ice. An effective champion of victims of abuse who has helped countless women begin to heal and recover their lives, she delves into the realm of sensation and exploitation and, in so doing, challenges the boundaries of good taste. She has done an extraordinary amount of good, but also backed products and ideas that are not only controversial but considered by many to be harmful. Despite the softening of her show’s ratings, her influence remains undiminished, and she can never be underestimated, for the pilot light that fired her ambitions since childhood still flames.

A closely observed, exhaustively researched, balanced, and psychologically insightful portrait of one of the most fascinating, powerful, and influential public figures or our time, OPRAH will be a must-read for anyone who seeks a greater understanding of Oprah’s extraordinary life and career and of her important place in American cultural history.

About the Author

Kitty Kelley is the internationally acclaimed bestselling author of Jackie Oh!; Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star; His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra; Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography; The Royals; and The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. The last four titles were all #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Kelley has been honored by her peers with such awards as the Outstanding Author Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors for her “courageous writing on popular culture,” the Philip M. Stern Award for her “outstanding service to writers and the writing profession,” the Medal of Merit from the Lotos Club in New York City, and the 2005 PEN Oakland Literary Censorship Award. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, People, Ladies’ Home Journal, McCall’s, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune.

Wayne Root's Got the Winning EDGE

Las Vegas Oddsmaker Wayne Allyn Root, Dubbed by National Media "the King of Vegas," Offers his Expert Analysis and Commentary to Media for College Football Bowl Season & NFL Post Season

“Wayne's the king of sports handicappers…he's the Warren Buffett of his world.”

--James J. Cramer, CNBC Host of “Mad Money”

College Football Bowl Season is underway. Millions of American sports fans will be wagering billions of dollars on these 35 Post Season games. Then the NFL Post Season starts - and the betting there will dwarf the Bowl Season. Over $6 billion will be bet on just one game - the Super Bowl.

Your audience will want expert commentary and analysis on these games. They want to hear "what Vegas thinks."

One man stands out as "the Jimmy The Greek" of our generation. That could be because as a 27-year-old, he became Jimmy the Greek's television partner and co-host at CNBC (then called Financial News Network). The baton was handed off. "The Greek" was soon sent off into retirement and his young co-host became a star. Wayne Allyn Root is quite simply the most honored professional sports handicapper and Vegas oddsmaker in the world. He is the brand name of sports gaming - dubbed by the national media as “the King of Vegas,” “The Face of Las Vegas Gambling,” “America's Oddsmaker,” and “The Prince of Prognosticators." 

Wayne is the only oddsmaker or professional sports handicapper to ever be awarded his own star by the Las Vegas Walk of Stars (in front of New York New York Casino Resort). Over 3 million sports bettors have called Wayne for his advice - more than any sports handicapper in history. It is estimated that over $3 billion dollars per year is bet on Wayne's advice. But Wayne is much more than an oddsmaker; he is a CEO, best-selling author, and national media personality. Wayne makes over one thousand media appearances per year, appearing on Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, and hundreds of radio stations across the country to talk, debate and infuriate on the topics of politics, business and sports.

Now Wayne is available to talk NCAA Bowls, and NFL Post Season on your TV or radio station this Holiday Season. Wayne is dynamic, charismatic, colorful, controversial, fiery, outspoken, and telegenic. Your audience will love him or hate him - but no one will ever tune out! [Go to Wayne's site now...]