Category Archives: News

News

Arlen Specter’s challenger Pat Toomey panned by RINOs in the NRSC

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I was just browsing over at the Maritime Sentry, and there was this interesting post about Arlen Specter’s primary challenger, Pat Toomey. Specter has been a de facto Democrat for a long time now, but for some reason the NRSC has continuously endorsed him in the primary. So what happens now? They can’t endorse Specter, he’s a Democrat. But they won’t endorse Pat Toomey.

Here is what happened with the Maritime Sentry phoned the NRSC about this:

I was shocked when I read at Hot Air today that the NRSC may not support Pat Toomey and may instead back another RINO candidate. I immediately called them and in very polite terms said I was disappointed and that I hoped they would change their mind and support Toomey; otherwise I would not support them in any way.

The guy who answered was extremely rude and hung up on me. I called back and got through to a woman this time. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she refused. She asked what my problem was. I went through the whole ordeal with her and again repeated my request to speak to a supervisor. She told me no, that she would handle it, and that my concerns were unjustified because the NRSC was supporting Toomey.

I read the quotes from Senators Hatch and Cornyn in the Hot Air article that stated otherwise. She then put me on hold, came back on, and said they have not decided who they will support, but that they needed to go with someone who could actually win.

I said something to the effect of ‘fine, if you go with a RINO I will not support the NRSC in any way…..’. She addressed me like a parent does a little child and promptly let me go. That is the legist of the call. I was raised to say sir and mam so I assure you I was polite.

Here’s a little more about it from post from NRO’s The Corner: (H/T Hot Air)

“I don’t think there is anybody in the world who believes he can get elected senator there,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Asked if the NRSC would back Toomey, Hatch said, “I don’t think so” and that the party should look for “someone who can win there.”…

Hatch later equivocated and said, “I’m not saying he can’t win – nobody gave me a chance when I ran.”…

On Wednesday, Cornyn said he didn’t know if Toomey would be the “only candidate” or the “strongest candidate” in the GOP primary.

“It’s too early to endorse,” Cornyn said.

Pat Toomey’s site is here. We can’t win the country back unless we stop being Democrat-lite and start articulating conservative principles and policies. And I do include socially conservative principles and policies as well as fiscally conservative ones.

UPDATE: Here’s an MP3 podcast featuring Pat Toomey on the Hugh Hewitt show.

News

How educrats sacrifice academic excellence for self-esteem

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UPDATE: Welcome Post-Darwinist readers! Thanks for the link Denyse! For more on the failures of educrats to focus on teaching young people instead of building up their self-esteem, please see Denyse’s post on the subject.

UPDATE: Welcome visitors from Blazing Cat Fur! One of my favorite Canadian blogs! Please take a look around, as I cover a number of issues of importance to Canadians, including health care, education, free trade, tax policy and of course FREE SPEECH! The Wintery Knight is a HUGE fan of PM Stephen Harper, MP Maurice Vellacott, MP Jason Kenney, Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn and MPP Lisa MacLeod.

My friend Richard sent me this:

Apparently, it has come to the point where students may not be given a zero grade for handing in assignments late, or a zero for not showing up the remake test/assignment. Below is a link to a petition a HS teacher in Ottawa has set up to reassess this policy. Please sign it. The last thing we need is to raise a generation of kids that have no concept of deadlines and consequences. That would be the end of our workforce.

The petition is here.

Excerpt from the petition content:

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education policies, if a student misses a test (whether they skip class or are sick) or if they cheat then the evaluation is not valid and they must not be given a zero. The student must have an opportunity to be re-evaluated on the material. Assignments can have a due date but if the student does not hand it in on the due date a zero cannot be assigned. The student must be allowed to hand in the assignment late without being penalized.

In the past teachers would go out of their way to make sure they evaluated students, but when given an opportunity to be re-evaluated, the student had to turn up. Now you can offer the student a chance to be re-evaluated, and if they don’t turn up they still cannot get a zero. Assignments can be handed in at any time during the year. If the whole class is doing the same assignment, the teacher can receive the finished assignments any time between the due date and the end of the year. If the teacher marks the assignments as he/she gets them and returns them as they are marked, then anyone who has not handed in an assignment can, if they are so inclined, copy an assignment that has been marked and turn it in as their own work. The only way around this is not returning the assignments until all of the students have submitted their work, but this delays essential feedback to the students. Teachers have to be able to indicate to students that a zero may given on missed evaluations and give penalty marks for work not done on time.

We cannot succeed in a global economy when those in charge of educating our children fail to teach them the kinds of skills they will need to take on the demanding jobs of the future. This is just another area of life where things have gotten so politically correct that we have forgotten the purpose of school: to gain knowledge! I urge you to consider signing the petition.

UPDATE: I found this story featuring Caroline Orchard in the Ottawa Citizen. And a panel discussion transcript. MP3 audio of an interview with Caroline Orchard from 580 CFRA, the news talk radio station in Ottawa.

News

Is Al Gore getting rich from faith-based global warming alarmism?

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Representative Marsha Blackburn
Representative Marsha Blackburn

You may remember I blogged before about how Marsha Blackburn asked Al Gore about whether he was profiting from his global warming alarmism? That was a very interesting video clip. And Green Hell Blog has posted many interesting things about Gore’s answer to Blackburn in that video clip.

Excerpt: (H/T Gateway Pundit)

When Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn confronted Al Gore with his profiteering from global warming legislation at today’s House Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing on the Waxman-Markey climate bill, Al Gore said that every penny he ever made from his business activities went into non-profit efforts.

That is a flat-out lie, according to this March 6, 2008 Bloomberg report that indicates that Al Gore invested $35 million of his own money in various for-profit endeavors.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore left the White House seven years ago with less than $2 million in assets, including a Virginia home and the family farm in Tennessee. Now he’s making enough to put $35 million in hedge funds and other private partnerships.

Gore invested the money with Capricorn Investment Group LLC, a Palo Alto, California, firm that selects the private funds for clients and invests in makers of environmentally friendly products, according to a Feb. 1 securities filing. Capricorn was founded by billionaire Jeffrey Skoll, former president of EBay Inc. and an executive producer of Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary film on global warming.Kudos to Rep. Blackburn for asking one of the “10 Questions for Al Gore” and exposing Gore as the fundamentally dishonest operator that he is.

Pro Patria analyzed of Al Gore’s rising net worth here.

Excerpt: (H/T Gateway Pundit)

So what has Al Gore gained from his Big Green escapades?

According to public disclosure information, Gore was worth somewhere between $1 million and $2 million in 2000. Not quite eight years later, Gore is estimated to be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. While I ordinarily would applaud such financial gains from such a short period of time, I can’t help but to question just how it happened. When you look out at what Al Gore has done, it’s evident that he figured out on a way to capitalize on the creation of Big Green while becoming the official doomsday prophet that has helped to build Big Green into the monetary powerhouse that it has become.

In any other industry this would be considered a severe conflict of interest. In essence, Al Gore has helped to create a fictitious catastrophe, then told everybody what the solutions have to be, and then put himself in a position to capitalize on the hype. It’s not only seriously dishonest, but many people and industries are going to suffer in the wake of this hype while Gore and Big Green bring in millions (and in some cases, billions) of dollars in green money.

Follow the money! Somehow I doubt that he is giving away the vast majority of it, like Dick Cheney did.