Look Out for Chinese Imports

by Phyllis Schlafly

Now that America is importing most of the ingredients in our prescription drugs and the majority of the foods we eat, it’s important to look behind the label. It may or may not tell you where the products come from.

Your prescription drugs may be coming from Communist China. Drug research in China has fallen under a cloud since 2006 because 13 of the top 20 global drug makers have set up research and development centers in China. Yes, it’s cheaper to do research there but, as one auditor said, “with cheaper research comes greater risk.”

Researchers did not report the results of animal studies about a drug already being tested in humans, a breach described by drug researchers as a “mortal sin.” Auditors also reported that Chinese workers did not properly monitor clinical trials and they paid hospitals in ways that could be seen as bribery.

China’s purchase of pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. for $4.7 billion has U.S. officials concerned about how this could affect the safety and availability of heparin. That’s an important blood thinner derived from pig intestines that is widely used in U.S. heart surgery and kidney dialysis.

This would be the biggest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company. Smithfield is the world’s largest pork producer, with 46,000 employees in 25 states, and is a major supplier of crude heparin, which is already stressed and could soon be in short supply.

In 2007 and 2008, nearly 150 people suffered serious reactions and 94 people died after being treated with contaminated heparin.

U.S. inspections in China are not what we are used to in the United States. For example, U.S. inspectors came and went from a Walmart-certified factory in Guangdong Province in China this fall, approving its production of specialty items that are on U.S. shelves for Christmas sales. Unknown to the inspectors, none of the kiddie items, such as reindeer suits, were manufactured at the factory being inspected, but had been outsourced to a never-inspected cheaper rogue factory.

continue reading at http://www.eagleforum.org

Defeat the Common Core Initiative!

The clock is ticking on the window of opportunity to defeat the Common Core Initiative. Just as Phyllis Schlafly and Eagle Forum organized in the 60s and 70s to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, we also must organize — state by state — as a cohesive unit that can take back the reins of education from the federal government and restore it to parents and states.

 

Eagle Forum has fought initiatives like the Common Core for decades, and because of those experiences, we know the power of the grassroots. We are depending on you to educate your friends and neighbors on the detrimental effects that the Common Core Initative is having and will continue to have on our American education system.  

 

If you attended Eagle Council 2013, you saw first-hand the powerhouse of talent, dedication, and good judgment Eagle Forum has brought together. We have all the Council sessions available for purchase, but because of the dire importance of educating Americans on the issues involved with the Common Core, we are offering our entire Common Core Boot Camp (2-DVD or audio CD set) for the special price of $40.00. These DVDs will equip listeners with the talking points needed to easily share the dangers of the Common Core initiative with others.

 

We must spread this information far and wide, and we need you to host meetings to educate the general public on the issue. Please lead the battle to put America back on the path of righteousness and liberty by empowering your friends and neighbors with this information.

 

Listed below are the speakers and topics from the Common Core Boot Camp:

 

Phyllis Schlafly, What Are They Teaching Our Children?

Emmett McGroarty, First ObamaCare, Now ObamaCore

Jim Stergios, National Standards Means National Curriculum and National Assessments

Dr. Terrence Moore, The Story-Killers: An Academic Case Against the Common Core

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Panel: Grassroots Opposition to Common Core

• State Senator Scott Schneider
• State Representative Andy Thompson
• Orlean Koehle
• Renee' Braddy
• Carolee Adams

Panel: National Opposition to Common Core

• Eunie Smith
• Gayle Ruzicka
• Glyn Wright

Whom Is John Kerry Representing?

 

by Phyllis Schlafly

John Kerry is turning out to be an even more dangerous Secretary of State than Hillary Clinton. He just took it upon himself to unilaterally proclaim that the Monroe Doctrine is dead, saying, “The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”

The Monroe Doctrine has been a fixed star in American foreign policy since December 2, 1823. Its essential words are: “The political system of the allied powers is essentially different from that of America. We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”

The operative words are: “this hemisphere,” “dangerous to our peace and safety,” and “system.” The Monroe Doctrine is not limited to military aggression; it prohibits extending the “system” of foreign powers to the Western Hemisphere, recognizing the fundamental difference between our constitutional republic and Old World empires and dictatorships.

The Marquis de Lafayette called the Monroe Doctrine “the best little bit of paper that God ever permitted any man to give the world.” The Monroe Doctrine has been successful over the centuries in keeping Old World dictatorships out of our hemisphere.

In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine was specifically directed at Imperial Russia when Czar Alexander was trying to colonize our Pacific coast. President James Monroe made his courageous declaration at a time when America had no standing army and our navy had only five sailing ships.

But we had a proud sense of national identity and national security. Monroe’s Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, stated, “There can, perhaps, be no better time for saying, frankly and explicitly, to the Russian government that the future peace of the world cannot be promoted by Russian settlements on any part of the American continent.”

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the problem was Russia again. The American people fully backed President John F. Kennedy in forcing Khrushchev to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba.

continue reading at http://www.eagleforum.org

Amnesty Is Republican Party Suicide

by Phyllis Schlafly

Most Americans believe that the United States of America is an exceptional country. The “borders test” proves that people are coming TO America, not fleeing FROM America to exit to other countries.

Republicans and conservatives recognize that the principal reason for our unique abundance is our constitutional restraints on the power of government, separation of powers, balanced budgets, and a minimum of government supervision and interference in our daily lives. America offers a remarkable opportunity for foreigners no matter what socioeconomic rank they were assigned in their native country.

Most of the millions of immigrants we have welcomed came from countries where the only government they knew was one that made all decisions about economic and social policy. The current level of legal immigration to America adds thousands of people every day whose views and experience are contrary to the conservative value of limited government.

The influx of these new voters will reduce or eliminate Republicans’ ability to offer an alternative to big government, increased government spending, and favorite liberal policies such as Obamacare and gun control. New voters will lean on our hard-pressed health care system and overcrowded public schools to demand more government services.

Amnesty advocates point to the assimilation of large numbers of immigrants in the early years of the 20th century. But that was followed by a national pause and slowdown of immigration from the 1920s to the 1960s, which allowed newcomers to assimilate, learn our language, and adapt to our system of government.

article continues at http://www.eagleforum.org

Lost Generation Betrayed by Obama

by Phyllis Schlafly

It used to be that a college degree was a ticket to a pretty good job. No more. College graduates are now called the “Lost” generation because more than half of recent graduates are jobless, or working only non-career part-time jobs, or working jobs that don’t require a college degree.

Today’s college students have been betrayed by the Obama Administration in so many ways. It was just the start when government invited them to mortgage their futures by taking out big loans to pay extravagant tuition prices, and then they discover they can’t get a job worth the price of the loans.

Government loans even encourage students to borrow money to spend five or six years in college because, unprepared for college-level studies, they must take remedial courses to learn what they should have been taught in high school. Student loans now total $1 trillion, and the average student owes $25,000.

article continues at http://www.eagleforum.org 

Is Article V in Our Future?

by Phyllis Schlafly

Attacks on the U.S. Constitution are coming from all sides. The New York Times opened its op-ed page to several liberal professors of government: one calls our Constitution “imbecilic,” another claims it contains “archaic” and “evil provisions,” and a third urges us to “rewrite the Second Amendment.”

Out of exasperation with the flouting of the Constitution by Barack Obama and his acolytes, and the way Congress is letting them get by with these violations, several conservative authors and pundits are promoting the calling of a national convention to propose amendments to the Constitution. They believe a series of amendments can put our country on a wiser path.

The authority for such a procedure is Article V of our Constitution, so they are calling their plan of action an Article V convention. However, they are fooling themselves when they suggest that Article V creates a path to bypass Congress with a “convention of states.”

The only power the states have under Article V is the opportunity to submit an “application” (petition) humbly beseeching Congress to call a convention. Hundreds of such applications have been submitted over the years, with widely different purposes and wording, many applications were later rescinded, and some purport to make the application valid for only a particular amendment such as a federal balanced budget or congressional term limits.

Article V states that Congress “shall” call a convention on the application of two-thirds of state legislatures (34), but how will Congress count valid applications? We don’t know, and so far Congress has ignored them anyway.

If Congress ever decides to act, Article V gives Congress exclusive power to issue the “Call” for a convention to propose “amendments” (note the plural). The Call is the governing document which determines all the basic rules such as where and when a convention will be held, who is eligible to be a delegate (will current office-holders be eligible?), how delegates will be apportioned, how expenses will be paid, and who will be the chairman.

Article V also gives Congress the power to determine whether the three-fourths of the states required for ratification of amendments can ratify by the state legislature’s action or by state conventions.

continue reading at http://www.eagleforum.org

Common Core Boot Camp at Eagle Council

For decades, Eagle Forum has been fighting the radical leftist indoctrination of our children in education. We support parents' rights to guide the education of their own children, to protect their children against immoral instruction, and to home-school without oppressive government regulations.

We have long opposed liberal propaganda in the curriculum through global education and political correctness, and deplore the dumbing-down of the academic curriculum through fads such as outcome-based education, and courses in self-esteem, diversity, and multiculturalism – like that found in the current battle against the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Eagle Forum has fought initiatives like the Common Core for years, and because of those experiences, you are guaranteed solid, effective activist training at Eagle Council where we will hold a special boot camp on defeating the Common Core, on Saturday, September 14th.

We will begin with a brief history of progressive education that will be given by Phyllis Schlafly. Then, you will hear from the nation’s leading experts on issues of the current federal overreach, the national curriculum that will come from the Standards, and the federal database that is prescribed through Common Core.

We will also feature two panels where you will hear from those that have been in the trenches. This will include state legislators as well as citizen activists and lobbyists from Capitol Hill.

You will only find this type of information and training at Eagle Council – you cannot afford to miss it!

Register Here

Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel

2800 South Potomac Ave · Arlington, Virginia 22202 USA

 

FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS: 1-703-413-1300

**Ask for the Eagle Council rate!

Judges Who Want to be Supremacists

by Phyllis Schlafly

Redefining the First Amendment is a core aim of Barack Obama’s plan to “fundamentally transform the United States.” He is steadily changing the First Amendment’s words, “free exercise” of religion, to the much more restricted notion of freedom of worship.

That means he will still accord us our right to go inside our churches, lock the doors and worship as we please. But with the help of atheist organizations and supremacist judges, Obama is steadily chipping away at our constitutional right of “free exercise” in public places, public events, and public schools.

Obama wants to force employers to provide contraception and abortion-inducing drugs to employees not only of churches, but also to employees of religious institutions such as schools, colleges and hospitals, and even to force this mandate on Christian employers who find it contrary to their religious belief. Dozens of lawsuits are now climbing through the judiciary to challenge this mandate.

continue reading at http://www.eagleforum.org/

Common Core Won’t Make Kids Smarter

by Phyllis Schlafly

The new education standards called Common Core won’t make U.S. kids any smarter. The overall Common Core strategy is to raise middle-scoring students a point or two but do nothing to motivate or help the smarter kids or the dumber kids. CC’s goal is to achieve a result like Lake Wobegon, the fictional Minnesota town where “all kids are above average.”

Professor Sandra Stotsky, a member of the CC validation committee, refused to approve the standards finally published and explained: “Common Core has carefully disguised its road to equally low outcomes for all demographic groups, and many state boards of education may quickly follow up their unexamined adoption of Common Core’s K-12 standards … by lowering their high school graduation requirements in the name of alignment….”

CC advocates continue to say that CC standards are not a curriculum but are merely standards. But it’s clear that the curriculum must be aligned with the CC tests, so teachers will be compelled to teach to the test.
A report by the UCLA-based National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing concluded that “educators will align curriculum and teaching to what is tested, and what is not assessed largely will be ignored.” Bill Gates, the largest individual financial contributor to Common Core, told the National Conference of State Legislators, “We’ll know we’ve succeeded when the curriculum and the tests are aligned to these standards.”

The CC English standards replace about half of the readings in literature classics with “informational” materials, which CC advocates say are supposed to promote analytical thinking by students. In a report released by the Pioneer Institute, Professor Stotsky gave an example of her grandson’s experience.
The students were assigned to read selections on the fate of the Taino Indians and from a diary supposedly written by Christopher Columbus’s cabin boy, and then were told to write to a state official opining on whether Columbus should be honored by a state holiday. Every student’s letter said Columbus should not be so honored. That’s how “informational” reading morphs into liberal propaganda.

continue reading at http://www.eagleforum.org 

Obama Is Embarrassed by ObamaCare

by Phyllis Schlafly

Barack Obama assured us that, after his signature legislation ObamaCare went into effect, we would surely like it. Now Obama has decided he doesn’t want us to find out how it affects us until after the 2014 elections.

ObamaCare is designed to force employers of 50 or more fulltime employees to provide comprehensive health insurance that includes a mandate to pay for an abortion-inducing drug. The penalty for non-compliance is a tax of $2,000 per fulltime employee per year (beyond the first 30), and the Internal Revenue Service was supposed to start collecting the penalties on January 1.

Obama apparently thinks he can conceal the mess he created, which even the Democrats who voted for it now call a “train wreck,” by simply postponing the effective date of the employer mandate one year. But the ObamaCare law, as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, unambiguously states: “EFFECTIVE DATE … The amendments made by this section shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2013.”

Obama has no authority to alter the timetable of the law’s implementation. Maybe he should actually read the 2,700 pages of text in the ObamaCare law and its 20,000 pages of regulations.

continue reading this article at Eagle Forum  

 

 

Why Parents Object to Common Core Standards

Reasons to object to the implementation of Common Core (CC) standards are numerous. Critics object to the manner in which they were created, adopted and funded, and say they are unconstitutional and illegal. The standards themselves are complicated and some worry that CC is inferior to some current state standards and intends to indoctrinate rather than teach students. The creation of an invasive student and family online database is troubling, as is the massive cost of implementing Common Core, which will strain states and communities.

How Were Common Core Standards Created?

Common Core standards were not developed by and did not emanate from states. They were funded and developed at the behest of two Washington, D.C.-based trade organizations, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA), through their contractor Achieve, Inc., with generous funding from the Gates Foundation and other private philanthropies. Some Common Core developers have questionable motives and backgrounds. Common Core standardized test creator Linda Darling-Hammond was President Obama’s top choice for education secretary but was never nominated because of her controversial leftist leanings; she is a close associate of domestic terrorist turned educator Bill Ayers. (See book review in this Education Reporter) Common Core was developed in closed meetings, without public debate, by committees.

How Was Common Core Adopted by States?

State Governors or State Boards of Education signed on to Common Core standards before even seeing the standards, after being cajoled to do so and “bribed” by promises of federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grants by the Obama administration. Only some states received money from the competitive RTTT grants. States were also threatened with the loss of No Child Left Behind waivers if they did not align, which would have meant significant loss of federal financial support. State legislatures, which represent the public, were not involved in the decision to adopt Common Core standards. Neither was the U.S. Congress.

Illegal and Unconstitutional Federal Overreach

Nationalized education standards should be considered unconstitutional under the 10th Amendment. The General Educational Provisions Act also prohibits federal overreach by prohibiting “any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States [from exercising] any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system. . . .”

Common Core severely limits local control of education. The standards are copyrighted by the CCSSO and NGA and licensed only to states. Federal dictates assure that 85% of academic standards in reading and math will strictly adhere to CC standards, leaving only 15% flexibility. With only 15% of the standards eligible to be altered by the local district, a state choosing to teach cursive writing instead of just the keyboarding mandated by CC would likely use up the entire 15% on this one change. Nationalized tests are more federal interference. These standardized tests will drive curriculum and textbooks.

Education standards could have been improved without federal intervention. According to Lindsey M. Burke of the Heritage Foundation:

States and local school districts can have success improving their standards and assessments without surrendering control to Washington. Increasing transparency of outcomes in a way that is meaningful to parents and taxpayers, providing flexibility for local school leaders, and advancing systemic reforms that include school choice options for families will go a long way in improving academic outcomes while at the same time preserving local control of education.

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Obama’s Pre-K Power Grab

by Phyllis Schlafly

Under the media’s radar, Obama has been aggressively promoting one of his fiscally extravagant projects announced in his 2013 State of the Union Address: “preschool available to every single child in America.” The plan for the federal government to take over the care of preschool children, a longtime goal of the feminists that used to be called universal child care, is now (probably to sound academic) called Pre-K.

The Obama Administration downplays the $75 billion initial cost of Pre-K by claiming it can be covered by raising the federal tax on cigarettes from $1.01 to $1.95. But cigarette taxes were hiked just a few years ago, and this massive sales tax falls harder on low-income Americans.

The game plan is to bait the states into accepting this expensive Pre-K plan by offering them bundles of new federal money, such as $308 million in grants dangled in front of Texas for just one year, requiring only a one-tenth match by the state. Of course, big blue-state California would receive the most funding, $334 million in the first year.

 Education Secretary Arne Duncan was asked if he could re-direct existing federal education funds to cover the cost of Pre-K. No, Obama wants “a massive influx of resources” instead of using existing funds more efficiently.

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We Should Reform Child Support

by Phyllis Schlafly


President Obama’s Father’s Day speech included one provocative yet very declarative sentence: “We should reform our child support laws to get more men working and engaged with their children.” Obama didn’t elaborate, but we can build on what he said because, yes indeed, child support laws urgently need “reform.”

Many fathers work long hours and make incredible sacrifices for their families. Child support formulas are based on the ridiculous notion that a father would make those same sacrifices for an ex-wife who is living with her new husband or boyfriend and for children he never or seldom sees.

Stop Common Core in Pennsylvania!

From: Phyllis Schlafly, President
Eagle Forum

For over 25 years, Eagle Forum has tried to protect public school children from federal control of school curriculum. I am now writing to alert you to the fact that the Obama Administration is pushing hard to force all 50 states to adopt federally designed content standards known as "Common Core Standards." This has stirred up parents and other grassroots more than any issue in a long time

It is vital that this federal intrusion be stopped in Pennsylvania. An important Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee hearing on Common Core is scheduled by Senate Education Committee Chairman, Sen. Mike Folmer, at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, May 15 in Hearing Room #1 of the North Office Building, Harrisburg (map). It is essential that the halls be filled with those opposed to Common Core in Pennsylvania in order to protest the infliction of this federal program on our state’s school children.

It is also important to contact members of the Pennsylvania State Senate and House and ask them to stop the implementation of Common Core. Your help is needed to persuade Pennsylvania state legislators to reject this program, as has been done in many other states, most recently in Indiana.

Important people to contact:

Governor Tom Corbett, 717-787-2500, governor@pa.gov

Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, 717-787-3300, gciarrocchi@pa.gov

Rep. Paul Clymer (Educ. Chair), 717-783-3154, pclymer@pahousegop.com

Rep.Mike Turzai (House Maj Ldr), 717-772-9943, mturzai@pahousegop.com

Sen. Joseph Scarnati (Pres Pro Tem), 717-787-7084, jscarnati@pasen.gov

Sen. Jake Corman (Sen App.Comm), 717-787-1377, jcorman@pasen.gov

Rep. Willliam Adolph (House App.Comm), 717-787-1248, wadolph@pahousegop.com

 

Use this link for info on the government's take-over of the education system  

 

 

 Eagle Forum's Mission is to enable conservative and pro-family men and women to participate in the process of self-government and public policy making so that America will continue to be a land of individual liberty, respect for family integrity, public and private virtue, and private enterprise. 

 

 

 

Immigration Danger from Drug-Resistant TB

by Phyllis Schlafly

The United States practically eliminated tuberculosis many decades ago with our good hygiene and good drugs. But TB is coming back with a vengeance over our open border with Mexico and in a form that is highly contagious, fatal, and drug resistant.

We got a shock recently when the national news carried information about an illegal alien from Nepal carrying this ancient disease across our southern border illegally after traveling through 13 countries. He probably infected people all along the way.

This Nepal man is now in an Immigration and Customs detention facility in Texas in so-called medical isolation. We don’t know how many of our U.S. Border Patrol and medical personnel may have been infected before his life-threatening disease was diagnosed.

A full-page account of the TB problem in the Wall Street Journal described in detail the worry of our health officials that our 2000-mile southern border could become a breeding ground for fatal, drug-resistant TB.

These diseased illegal aliens who show up on our doorstep in Texas and Arizona, requiring years of medication and isolation while being a danger to the lives of Americans assigned to care for them, are very costly. A recent CDC study estimates the cost of treatment on average to be $140,000, and some cases run as high as $700,000.

Tuberculosis is a debilitating disease that has shortened human lives since ancient times. It is caused by infectious bacteria that easily pass airborne from person to person through casual association, coughing and breathing.

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