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Thursday, March 24, 2016

NORTH CAROLINA LAWMAKERS & GOVERNOR OVERTURN CHARLOTTE'S CONTROVERSIAL "BATHROOM BILL"

NORTH CAROLINA LAWMAKERS & GOVERNOR OVERTURN CHARLOTTE'S CONTROVERSIAL "BATHROOM BILL" 
BY HEATHER CLARK
SEE: http://christiannews.net/2016/03/24/north-carolina-lawmakers-governor-overturn-charlottes-controversial-bathroom-bill/republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Lawmakers in North Carolina passed legislation to overturn Charlotte’s controversial “bathroom bill” on Wednesday, sending the statute to the desk of Gov. Pat McCrory, who promptly signed the measure into law.
“The basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings, a restroom or locker room, for each gender was violated by government overreach and intrusion by the mayor and city council of Charlotte,” McCrory said in a statement.
As previously reported, despite hours of testimony largely in opposition of the proposal, the Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 last month to expand the city’s non-discrimination ordinance to add provisions for homosexuals and those who identify as the opposite sex—including in regard to restroom and locker room use.
Over 21,000 area residents had signed a petition in opposition of the proposed expansion, and pastors, community leaders and others part of a coalition opposed to the changes known as “Don’t Do It Charlotte” also rallied outside prior to the meeting.
Council members Al Austin, John Autry, Patsy Kinsey, Julie Eiselt, James Mitchell, LaWana Mayfield and Mayor Pro Tem Lyles voted in favor of the ordinance, while council members Ed Driggs, Claire Fallon, Greg Phipps, and Kenny Smith rejected the measure.
Gov. McCrory had warned that legislative action would ensue if the council passed the ordinance, and just as stated, House Speaker Tim Moore vowed to overturn the law following its approval.
On Monday, following a rally at the state house, Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger announced that they had obtained the necessary three-fifths majority in the General Assembly to move forward with a special session on the matter. Lawmakers sought to override the ordinance before it went into effect on April 1.
On Wednesday, following three hours of debate, the North Carolina House voted 84-25 in favor of a bill invalidating the Charlotte ordinance, with votes cast mostly along party lines—with the exception of 11 Democrats who supported the effort.
The bill, known as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, then passed the Senate 32-0 after Democrats walked out in protest as they believed that they were being left out of the participation process.
Transgender advocacy organizations opposed the special session, stating that the move to overturn the law was based on fear, and not facts.
“Legislators have gone out of their way to stigmatize and marginalize transgender North Carolinians by pushing ugly and fundamentally untrue stereotypes that are based on fear and ignorance and not supported by the experiences of more than 200 cities…,” said Sarah Preston of the ACLU of North Carolina.
“I can’t use the men’s room. I won’t go back to the men’s room. It is unsafe for me there. People like me die in there,” a man who identifies as female and goes by the name Madeline Goss told WSOC-TV.
House Speaker Tim Moore said that he believed that the bill was important and reflected the views of constituents.
“I am glad that my colleagues joined together today to pass this bill that overrules the foolish and dangerous restroom ordinance passed by the city council and mayor of Charlotte,” he remarked in a statement. “North Carolinians have spoken loud and clear that they are deeply concerned about what this ordinance means for the safety and expectation of privacy for women and children. In all the years I have served in the General Assembly I have never seen such a negative reaction to an ordinance passed by a municipality.”

MICHIGAN BOARD OF EDUCATION RELEASES CONTROVERSIAL NEW LGBTQ GUIDELINES

MICHIGAN BOARD OF EDUCATION RELEASES CONTROVERSIAL NEW LGBTQ GUIDELINES
BY RAVEN CLABOUGH
SEE: http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/22827-michigan-board-of-education-releases-controversial-new-lgbtq-guidelinesrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Michigan’s Board of Education has drafted a set of guidelines that asks schools to allow students to make their own decisions regarding which bathrooms they use, the gender by which they want to be identified, and the names by which they’d like to be called. The guidelines, which seem to explicitly remove parents and doctors from the decision-making process, have been signed by State Superintendent Brian Whiston.
The Daily Caller reports that the board “quietly issued” the statement and corresponding guidance on February 23 without a press release. The public has only until April 11 to comment on the guidance before the board finalizes it on May 10.
The statement defines gender identity as “a person’s deeply held internal sense or psychological knowledge of their own gender, regardless of the biological sex they were assigned at birth,” and allows students to make decisions based on the gender with which they identify. The statement also identifies some of its students as gender nonconforming (GNC), which is defined as those “whose gender expression differs from stereotypical expectations of the biological sex they were assigned at birth.”
The Board of Education statement presents eight recommendations to ensure that GNC students are treated fairly and equally without discrimination “based on their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.” Those recommendations include adopting and enforcing policies that protect those students from harassment and bullying, providing staff with professional development opportunities on issues affecting LGBTQ students, and supporting the formation of extracurricular student-led clubs geared toward students who fall within those categories.
The statement then explains that the Board of Education has provided additional guidance to ensure that transgender and GNC students are receiving “the same educational opportunities as their peers.” That guidance instructs schools to be cognizant of the specific needs of the gender-nonconforming students and makes recommendations involving a number of areas, including use of pronouns and dress code.
Notable items that are missing from the guidance are considerations based on students’ ages, as well as input from parents and medical professionals.
“The responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student. Outside confirmation from medical or mental health professionals, or documentation of legal changes, is not needed,” the guidance states.
One recommendation states that students who request an alternative name are permitted to have that name added to the district’s information management systems alongside the legal name.
“School staff should address students by their chosen name and pronouns that correspond to their gender identity, regardless of whether there has been a legal name change,” the guidance reads.
It also outlines a process for maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the students, including keeping the students’ preferences from their parents: “Transgender and GNC students have the right to decide when, with whom, and to what extent to share private information,” the guidance explains. Thus, “when contacting the parent/guardian of a transgender or GNC student, school staff should use the student’s legal name and the pronoun corresponding to the student’s assigned sex at birth, unless the student or parent/guardian has specified.”
The guidance claims that its purpose is to help accomplish the state’s strategic goals of “reducing the impact of high-risk factors and providing equitable resources and access to quality educational opportunities to meet the needs of all students.”
As such, the guidance does not permit schools to simply offer single-stall bathrooms as the only option for gender-confused students, as they are not inclusive enough.
“Alternative and non-stigmatizing options, such as an all-gender or single-user restroom (e.g., staff bathroom or nurse’s office), should be made available to students who request them, but not presented as the only option,” the guidance states.
Perhaps the most shocking component of the guidance is its inclusion of locker rooms.
“A student should not be required to use a locker room that is incongruent with their gender identity,” the guidance states. “Locker room usage should be determined on a case-by-case basis, using the guiding principles of safety and honoring the student’s gender identity and expression.”
And students who are uncomfortable sharing a locker room with those of the opposite sex can ask for an “adjusted changing schedule” or “use of a private area in the facility.”
It’s not clear whether the policy includes showers in the locker room, and a call to the superintendent’s office for clarification has not been returned.
The state Board of Education defends its guidance by stating it “recognizes the need for all students to have a safe and supportive school environment to progress academically and developmentally, and believes school administrators, teachers, staff, families, and students all play an important role in creating and sustaining that environment.”
But efforts by the state Board of Education to ensure that Michigan GNC “progress academically and developmentally” may be undermined by policies such as the ones found within the guidance.
The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) released a position statement on March 21 entitled “Gender Ideology Harms Children” in which it contends that any policies that foster the belief that gender dysphoria is anything beyond a psychological problem are in fact harmful. The ACPeds observes that schools and lawmakers should “reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts — not ideology — determine reality.”
The authors of the position statement make several scientific observations, including that human sexuality “is an objective biological binary trait." Children who use hormones to attempt to mimic a sexuality that is not their own have a number of dangerous physical and mental risks, the position statement advises, adding that “conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful” can be classified as child abuse.
As of March 23, there are nearly 900 comments on the public comment forum regarding the guidance, and a quick perusal reveals that a majority of parents are outraged. Parent Joel Lindman wrote,
This policy is totally unacceptable. Have you lost your collective minds. As a parent of sons and a daughter I will not let my children attend a school that puts this policy in place. You are recklessly using my tax dollars to promote a liberal social agenda that disregards common sense and creates unsafe environment for children. The following is right from your proposal "The responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student." At what age does a student determine his or her identity? Your policy competently leaves the parents on the sideline. Perhaps the Board members should share bathrooms with each other.
Lindman’s comment was followed by those of a number of other parents who agreed.
Others begrudged not just the policy, but what they observe is a violation of parental rights. “These new policy standards are a slap in the face to parental rights,” declared Casey Armitage. “The State does not have a place in deciding what is best for our children.”
A number of parents threatened to either homeschool their children or place them in private school if the standards are adopted. One parent, identified as Meghan R., wrote, “If this passes we will ensure our children never attend public school here in Michigan.”

TIM KENNEDY: LEFT WANTS MORE TERROR TO TAKE OUR FREEDOMS

TIM KENNEDY: LEFT WANTS MORE TERROR TO TAKE OUR FREEDOMS

Special Forces operative joins the show to break down the destabilization of the Middle East

Tim Kennedy Joins Alex Jones to discuss the latest attack in Brussels.
They explain how it is all a continuation of the ISIS plan to wage terror on Europe and possibly the US.
MMA fighter and Special Forces operative Tim Kennedy is in studio to break down his experiences with the turmoil spilling from the Middle East.

Top Army War Fighter Speaks Out Against Tyranny

UNETHICAL DIRTY TRICKS: CRUZ CAMPAIGN ENCOURAGED UTAH VOTERS TO BREAK LAW

INSIDER: CRUZ CAMPAIGN ENCOURAGED 

UTAH VOTERS TO BREAK LAW

Campaign reportedly sent e-mail that leaves out legal requirements

BY KIT DANIELS
SEE: http://www.infowars.com/insider-cruz-campaign-encouraged-utah-voters-to-break-law/republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

The Ted Cruz campaign reportedly encouraged absentee voters to slip in their ballots without proper documentation.
A Utah voter received the following e-mail apparently from the Cruz campaign:
If an absentee voter follows these instructions, he would risk violating Utah voting laws which state that absentee voters must submit an application form the Thursday before the primary.
Voters cannot simply decide to vote “absentee” the day before the election and print off a ballot without having filed an application beforehand, which these instructions imply.
“All completed absentee ballot application forms should be filed with the appropriate election officer [County Clerk’s Office] no later than the Thursday before election day,” Vote.utah.gov says in no uncertain terms. “Military and overseas ballots will be mailed by 45 days before an election; all other by-mail ballots will be mailed 28 days before an election.”
032316absentee
Proper instructions on how to “vote absentee” legally would have mentioned the application form and would have been sent out long before the primary.
The e-mailed instructions, on the other hand, seem to prey on the ignorance of Utah election officials, many of whom are inexperienced volunteers.
The voter who received the e-mail and posted it at Godlike Productions said the e-mail encouraged “total fraud.”
“First, I served several years in a leadership role in the Utah Republican Party, so I know a few things about the process,” he said. “There are only two things that will happen if people show up with ballots like this:
1) It will slow down voting while volunteers try to figure out wtf to do with these ballots. Hopefully, if people are doing their jobs, these will be thrown out.
2) The more likely scenario is, in the chaos, volunteers will just take the ballot and submit it with the rest of the ballots.”
“If you do this, you are participating in voter fraud,” he warned.
The Cruz campaign has a history of unethical behavior, such as misleading Iowa voters into thinking Ben Carson had dropped out of the race so they would vote for Cruz.

COMMUNISM AT THE CORE OF COMMON CORE

ESSA
COMMUNISM AT THE CORE OF COMMON CORE
SEE: http://www.trunews.com/communism-at-the-core-of-common-core/republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

(TRUNEWS) Many Americans are fed up with Common Core but don’t understand the true agenda – to promote communism.
Chaplain Ray Moore has studied the program extensively and was a guest on Tuesday’s edition of TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles.
He said the goal is evidenced by the fact that Common Core does not have absolutes, even in math.  Working in groups and a forming a “collective state of mind” is a more important goal than coming up with the correct answer.
“It’s collectivism, globalism,” Moore said.
He claims the globalists want children to be dumbed-down so that a large percentage will only be able to perform menial jobs when they get older. They will not know they are pawns if they can’t think independently and won’t have the ability to understand the Bible or the Constitution. This will enable the masses to be controlled.
Moore said Common Core has been around for a long time, only under different names. Every time a new president is elected, a new title is given to the educational standard, but it is the same agenda. Under President Bush, it was “No Child Left Behind”.  President Clinton signed into law “The Goals 2000: Educate America Act”.
Common Core was developed by Achieve, Inc., was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is part of UN Agenda 21.
“It’s a dark agenda,” he said.
Achieve, Inc. is the think tank that developed Common Core and its former frontman, David Coleman has been described as the principal of the initiative.
“David Coleman, in my judgement, is one of the most important bad men no one’s ever heard of,” said Moore.
Coleman is now involved in College Board, which helps students get into college through the SAT and Advanced Placement. These programs are being tweaked to be compatible with Common Core – which could prevent homeschool and Christian students from getting into college.
A film has been produced by Moore to educate parents about the system. It can be found at escapecommoncore.com.
class-common-core-AP

Common Core was implemented in 2009 by state leaders. Then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was a strong promoter of the program. So is Ohio Gov. and current GOP presidential candidate John Kasich.  Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders also support it.
Both Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz have spoken out against Common Core.
Moore believes the solution is not to try and reform Common Core, but for people to pull their children out of the public school system.
To hear the full interview, go to the TRUNEWS app or here on our website.




GEORGE SOROS' SON PROVIDES $1 MILLION DONATION TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD VOTES

FOLLOW THE MONEY
GEORGE SOROS' SON PROVIDES $1 MILLION DONATION TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD VOTES
BY JOE SCHOFFSTALL
SEE: http://freebeacon.com/politics/george-soros-son-provides-1-mil-donation-to-planned-parenthood-votes/republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Jonathan Allan Soros, the chief executive officer of JS Capital Management LLC and son of liberal billionaire George Soros, made a $1,000,000 donation to Planned Parenthood Votes during the month of February, newly released Federal Election Commission records show.
Planned Parenthood Votes, the political action arm of Planned Parenthood, received donations from 11 individuals totaling $2,723,297.17 in February. Jonathan’s contribution was double that of the next-largest donation given to the group.
Jay Pritzker, managing partner at the Pritzker Group, an investment firm, provided the second-largest contribution throughout February in the amount of $500,000.
Joanne Egerman, who sits on the board of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts in Boston and the Anti-Defamation League in New York, gave $400,000 to the group last month.
Jonathan Soros is not the only member of the Soros family to pump money to Planned Parenthood Votes this year.
The group pulled in $538,585.18 from just five donors in January including $250,000 from Andrea Soros Colombel, president of the Trace Foundation and daughter of George Soros.
Planned Parenthood Votes now shows $4,508,822 in total receipts for the 2016 election cycle and has spent $1,295,881. The group currently has $3,342,810 cash on hand and debts of $258,296.

OBAMA ENGAGED IN SECRET TALKS TO PAY IRAN NEARLY $2 BILLION

Obama Admin Engaged in Secret Talks 
to Pay Iran Nearly $2 Billion
Officials admit delays in informing Congress, 
say more payments to come
BY ADAM KREDO
SEE: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-admin-secret-talks-pay-iran-2-billion/republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

The Obama administration has spent three years engaged in secret talks with Iran that resulted in the payment of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds to the Islamic Republic, with more payouts likely to come in the future, according to a recent letter issued by the State Department and obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.
The administration’s disclosure came in response to an inquiry launched in January by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), who was seeking further information about the Obama administration’s payment of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to Iran, which many viewed as a “ransom payment” for Iran’s release that month of several U.S. hostages.
The administration’s official response to Pompeo was sent earlier this week, just days after a Free Beacon report detailing a months-long State Department effort to stall the lawmaker’s inquiry.
“We apologize for the delay in responding,” Julia Frifield, an assistant secretary for legislative affairs, states in the letter’s opening.
Obama administration officials first began talks to settle a number of outstanding legal claims leveled against the United States by Iran in 2014. The administration predicts that more taxpayer-funded payments are likely to be granted to the Islamic Republic in the future, according to the letter.
Frifield in her letter goes on to defend the $1.7 billion payment to Iran and discloses that the administration is open to providing Tehran with more money if it is willing to settle these decades-old legal disputes with the United States.
“We are confident that this was a good settlement for the American taxpayer,” the State Department said.
Iran’s legal row with the United States surrounds the breakdown of a massive arms deal that was nixed in the aftermath of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, which resulted in the capture of the U.S. embassy and American personnel stationed there.
Many of these claims remain unsettled and are still being litigated by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at the Hague.
The Obama administration has been working behind the scenes since at least 2014 to reach settlement agreements with Iran to avoid court decisions, according to the letter, which identifies at least two separate discussions held in June 2014 and January 2015.
The administration anticipates that more settlements will come, meaning that the United States will likely be forced to pay Iran via a taxpayer legal fund operated by the Treasury Department.
“The United States is continuing to vigorously litigate these claims at the Tribunal, but is also open to discussing further settlements of claims with Iran, as we have done throughout the life of the Tribunal, with the aim of resolving them in furtherance of U.S. interests,” the letter states.
Iran’s “fact-intensive claims involve over 1,000 separate contracts between Iran and the United States,” according to the letter, which explains that January’s $1.7 billion payment settled just one of many outstanding disputes.
The Obama administration fails to directly address Pompeo’s questions seeking to determine if the legal settlement was finalized as part of an incentive package meant to motivate Tehran to free imprisoned Americans.
“It would not be in the interest of the United States to discuss further details of the settlement of these claims in an unclassified letter due to the ongoing litigation at the Tribunal,” the State Department writes. “However, we would be prepared to provide a closed briefing on such issues if it would be useful to there.”
“When Iran releases American hostages, and then, on that same day, President Obama announces he is paying Iran $1.7 billion, Congress of course has to ask the hard questions,” said one source familiar with the investigation. “And when the Obama administration admits that over $1 billion in taxpayer money is going to the Iranian regime, Congress is obligated to respond. The State Department has ducked and dodged–providing a history lesson on international tribunals, focused on actions decades ago, instead of addressing dangerous misdeeds that were potentially just committed. That is suspicious.”
Under the specific terms of January’s settlement, Iran was to be paid a $400 million balance and an additional $1.3 billion in interest from a taxpayer fund maintained by the Treasury Department, a State Department official confirmed to the Free Beacon at the time.
That settlement—along with additional settlements—was reached outside of the recently implemented nuclear deal and is separate from the $150 billion in unfrozen cash assets the United States is obligated to give to Iran under that agreement, the official said.
The $1.7 billion payment was announced just prior to the release of five U.S. prisoners who had been held in Iran, sparking accusations that the deal is tantamount to a ransom payment.

OBAMA VISITS COMMUNIST DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO~A PRETTY HUMILIATING DAY TO BE AN AMERICAN (ON PURPOSE)

AP

A Pretty Humiliating Day to Be an American

BY AARON MACLEAN
SEE: http://freebeacon.com/blog/a-pretty-humiliating-day-to-be-an-american/republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Don’t say Barack Obama never tells it how it is. When he revealed to Jeffrey Goldberg that, in his opinion, the Washington foreign policy establishment fetishizes “credibility,” that obsession with credibility got us into Vietnam, and that he personally has broken out of credibility’s limiting box—well, you might have thought that deep down this was just an embarrassed, ex post facto rationalization of the Syrian red line debacle. But to watch him stand there today in Cuba, next to a doddering, pompous communist dictator going out of his way repeatedly to insult Obama and the United States, and in response mustering little more than a weak, “You know, I actually welcome President Castro commenting on some of the areas where he feels we’re falling short,” it is painfully clear that our president is a man long past caring about public humiliation.
Before a televised press conference in Havana, Raul Castro harangued Obama about the continuing American “blockade” of Cuba, its “illegal” occupation of Guantanamo Bay, seemed to accuse the president of being friendly to “destabilization” in Venezuela, and implied that his own family’s corrupt ownership of an entire country was justified because, unlike in America, “We find it inconceivable that a government does not defend and ensure the right to health care, any patient, social security, food provision and development, equal pay, and the rights of children.”
Welcome to Cuba, Mr. President!
With the man who ought to command the title of “leader of the free world” standing right next to him, Castro flatly lied to an American reporter who asked him about political prisoners, saying that CNN’s Jim Acosta should give him a list when the press conference was over, because he was unaware of any such detainees. (A partial list is here, if you’d like to see it.) When another reporter followed up on human rights issues, Castro responded with a robust defense—you can’t make this stuff up—of Cuba’s commitment to a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work.
And the president of the United States just stood there and took it. Virtually the only resistance he offered came at the end, when Castro, a man whom we may presume is accustomed to getting what he wants, grabbed Obama’s wrist and tried to hoist it into the air for some sort of victory photo op. Obama responded by letting his wrist go limp as Castro weirdly waved his arm around in the air.
As Obama advanced his foreign policy of giving away the store to third-rate dictatorships in the supremely arrogant belief that his generosity will teach their leaders to be virtuous, almost simultaneously the GOP front runner was in Washington advancing a vision of American leadership that appears to be based on shaking down our allies. Trump told the Washington Post‘s editorial board that “NATO is costing us a fortune,” and that “we are not reimbursed” for the help we give South Korea. Because America is “a poor country now,” we need to pull back from these and other similar relationships—though, implicitly, our friends could always pay up if they wanted to keep our protection. In an appearance later in the day, he also appeared to support cutting off aid for Israel, before walking that position back a few minutes later, because he’s pretty much making most of this up as he goes along.
In short, this was a pretty humiliating day to be an American.