Common Core's National Curriculum Has Arrived

Jane Robbins / Townhall Columnist

Editor's note:This column was co-authored by JaKell Sullivan, a member of Return to Parental Rights — a grass-roots parents group representing parents across America who are interested in preserving the family as the fundamental unit of society and parents' fundamental rights to direct their children's educations.

In May 2014, conservative columnist George Will warned that Common Core represented the "thin edge of an enormous wedge" and that "sooner or later you inevitably have a national curriculum."

Will’s concern is now closer to realization. One lever the U.S. Department of Education (USED) may use to hasten this outcome is the #GoOpen Initiative, through which USED will push onto the states Common Core-aligned online instructional materials. These materials are “openly licensed educational resources” (Open Educational Resources, or OER) – online resources that have no copyright and are free to all users. Utah is part of the initial consortium of states that will be collaborating in #GoOpen.

#GoOpen is part of a larger global and federal effort to institute OER in place of books and traditional education (in fact, USED appointed a new advisor to help school districts transition to OER). More disturbingly, another part of this scheme increases the federal government’s ability to monitor and track teacher and student use of these online resources – and perhaps even influence the content.

OK, Hillary, Have Fun Defending Obama's Record

David Limbaugh / Townhall Columnist

Some Republicans are disillusioned with their party's nominee, but imagine how rank-and-file Democrats must feel. Their presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, not only is exceedingly unappealing in her own right but also seeks to fulfill Barack Obama's third term and must defend -- even champion -- his disastrous record.

 

Apart from Clinton's own baggage -- her corruption, her empty record, her enabling of her husband's sexual exploits, her enormous unlikability -- she has sidled up to Obama so much during his tenure that she is stuck with his record, whether she likes it or not.

As President Obama's record reflects the worst presidential performance in modern memory -- and probably longer -- Clinton has her work cut out for her, but she will have a smorgasbord of excuses available.

Clinton must misrepresent Obama's record by sanitizing the miserable conditions Americans are currently experiencing and arguing that any failures, all of which she will deny, were caused by Republican opposition and obstruction during his term or Republican disasters preceding his term.

Don't laugh, but the meme that "it's Bush's fault" is still fresh on their lips. Every mainstream media report that grudgingly concedes the economy is struggling invariably cites the 2008 financial crisis Obama "inherited." Not only is it ridiculous to scapegoat Republicans for a recession that began 8 1/2 years ago but also it is outrageous that Obama and his media enablers airbrush the Democrats' principal culpability in engineering the policies that led to the financial crisis.

Congressman calls Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria ‘termites’

By: Atara Beck /

Addressing an anti-Israel audience at the DNC, a congressman likened Jewish Israelis living in Judea and Samaria to “termites.”

Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democratic member of the House Armed Services Committee, compared residents of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria to “termites,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Speaking in Philadelphia at a Democratic National Convention event sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, an organization that promotes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Jewish state, the congressman from Georgia stated:

“There has been a steady [stream], almost like termites can get into a residence and eat before you know that you’ve been eaten up and you fall in on yourself, there has been settlement activity that has marched forward with impunity and at an ever-increasing rate to the point where it has become alarming.”

According to Johnson, “Jewish people” routinely steal land and property from Palestinians.
Cynthia McKinney, a former member of the House of Representatives, on Sunday posted on Twitter that Israel was complicit in the recent terror attacks in Nice and Munich. Also a Democrat from Georgia, she based her libelous allegation on the fact that an Israeli photographer was present at both incidents.

Islamic State and al-Qaeda jihadists both threaten Brazil Olympics
By Christine Williams / Jihad Watch

 

Recall the arrest of 10 Brazilian jihadists connected to the Islamic State who were planning terrorist acts at the Olympic games, and also a tweet sent by the Islamic State that warned, “Brazil, you are our next target.” Now, in addition to threats from the Islamic State, Brazil has to deal with a group of […]
 
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Al Qaeda chief urges KIDNAPPINGS OF WESTERNERS for prisoner swaps
Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

You think it’s bad now, with jihad attacks nearly every day in Germany? It’s going to get much, much worse, in Germany and all over the West, thanks to Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Theresa May and the rest.

“Al Qaeda chief urges kidnappings of Westerners for prisoner swaps: SITE,” Reuters, July 24, 2016:

Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has appeared in an audio interview calling on fighters to take Western hostages and exchange them for jailed jihadists, the monitoring service SITE Intelligence Group said on Sunday.

In recording posted online, Al-Zawahiri called on the global militant network to kidnap Westerners “until they liberate the last Muslim male prisoner and last Muslim female prisoner in the prisons...

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