Category Archives: politics

13-Year-Old Middle School Student Suspended for ‘Pranking’ Fellow Student with Oregano, Charged with Distributing Counterfeit Drug

Posted on February 23, 2012 by | Leave a comment

(WAXHAW, NC) — The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of an eighth-grade public school student who was suspended for allegedly playing a joke on a fellow student by giving him a bag of the Italian herb oregano. As a result of his prank, the 13-year-old Cuthbertson Middle School student was initially suspended for 10 days and charged with being in possession of and having the intent to distribute an “illegal drug, counterfeit or synthetic drug.” School officials with Union County Public Schools have since suspended the boy for an additional 45 days with attendance in an alternative school program. In addition to the suspension being a gross overreaction to a childish prank, Institute attorneys point out that oregano cannot properly be considered a “counterfeit or synthetic drug” under the school’s Code of Conduct or the North Carolina statute pertaining to counterfeit drugs.

“Zero-tolerance discipline cases are becoming increasingly absurd,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Rather than responding with reason, proportionality, and compassion to childish indiscretions, schools are subjecting young people to treatment far worse than is meted out to adult defendants in the criminal justice system. It doesn’t make any sense.”

On January 20, 2012, the eighth grader in question, whose family has asked that he not be identified publicly (referred to hereafter as “B”), brought a bag containing oregano to Cuthbertson Middle School. “B” played a joke on a fellow student who had spoken to him about marijuana—the students having discussed it in health class—by giving his classmate a bag of oregano. Claiming they didn’t want other children to be in danger, school officials charged “B” with having the intent to distribute an “illegal drug, counterfeit or synthetic drug,” and initially suspended him for 10 days, later extending it to an additional 45 days. Insisting that her son had merely engaged in a schoolboy prank with no intention to harm anyone, “B’s” mother turned to The Rutherford Institute for help.

In a letter to officials with the Union County Public Schools, John W. Whitehead warned that the school’s unwarranted overreaction to the incident could be construed as a violation of “B’s” constitutional rights. Moreover, in light of the fact that oregano is not defined as a “counterfeit or synthetic drug” in accordance with the school’s Student Code of Conduct, nor does it meet the statutory definition of “counterfeit drug” as set forth in North Carolina General Stat. Ann. §106-121(4a), Institute attorneys argue that “B” cannot be subjected to long-term suspension. Pointing out that North Carolina law not only confers upon school officials the authority to issue long-term suspensions only when a student’s conduct demonstrates a willful violation of school policies, but also discourages such punishments except for serious violations that either threaten the safety of students, staff or school visitors or threaten to substantially disrupt the educational environment, Whitehead has asked that the long-term suspension be revoked immediately in favor of a reasonable response that takes “B’s” best interests into account and avoids unnecessary interference with his education.

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Detroit Newspaper Calls For Birth Control Sterilants To Be Added To Public Water Supply

Posted on February 22, 2012 by | Leave a comment

By Jonathan Benson

(NaturalNews) Why would you forcibly medicate the population with fluoride chemicals via the water supply when you could instead forcibly medicate them with birth control drugs? That seems to be the opinion of Nolan Finley, the editorial page editor at The Detroit News, who says that too many people on welfare are having babies in Detroit, Mich., and that adding birth control sterilants to the water supply just might be a good solution to the problem.

While seemingly intended to be a commentary on the immense burden that excessive pregnancies are on the social welfare system in the city — his focus seems to be on the city’s poor whose wombs are a “poverty factory”, his own words — Finley’s strongly-worded diatribe reads more like a page out of a eugenics manual. Seething with disgust over the dismal state of affairs in Detroit, Finley’s column makes some very drastic recommendations about how he thinks the state should handle the city’s higher-than-he-would-like birth rate.

In all reality, Detroit is the new poster child city for what happens when globalists take over a nation and destroy its industrial base. Rapidly decaying infrastructure, out-of-control crime, decimated industry, and a resultant mass exodus of middle and upper-class families are all the result of America’s deindustrialization, which is something for which the city’s poor were obviously not directly responsible.

And yet Finley seems to suggest that the city’s poor are a cause, rather than a consequence, of this raping and pillaging of the American economy. He goes on to suggest that the very same government responsible for causing the debacle in the first place became directly involved in “fixing it” by embracing a philosophy of “reproductive responsibility.” And one of his suggestions for doing this appears to be lacing the city’s water supply with contraceptive drugs.

He could be speaking tongue-in-cheek, of course. But he could also be dead serious. Based on his apparent belief that the government needs to get involved in regulating how many children a person can have, Finley seems to embrace a philosophy of reproductive responsibility that looks more like government-mandated population control.

n a recent analysis of Finley’s piece, Aaron Dykes over at InfoWars.com explains how such eugenicist ideas are rooted in corrupt, collectivist governments who want complete control over the population. The poor that are having too many babies, in other words, are a scapegoat for implementing outlandish public policy initiatives like adding chemicals to the water supply for the “greater good.”

This is exactly the argument that has long been used to support adding fluoride chemicals to the water supply. Poor families and their children, we are told, are all losing their teeth because of a lack of proper dental care, and the only way to fix it is to dump toxic fluoride waste into the water supply, 99 percent of which ends up going down the drain anyway (http://www.naturalnews.com/034499_fluoride_vans_water_supply.html).

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034977_water_supply_birth_control_Detroit.html

Jonathan Benson is staff writer at Natural News.

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Ronald Reagan’s Argument for Personhood Amendment

Posted on February 22, 2012 by | Leave a comment

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Elph9CfsKs&w=560&h=315]

See Ron Paul’s Pledge to Uphold the Right of Personhood.

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Political Leaders Protect Marriage and Children from Homosexual/Transsexual Demands

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | Leave a comment

By Wendy Wright

(New York – C-FAM) Resistance to the United States’ new foreign policy priority is emerging around the world for the same reasons it has been rejected within the U.S. Political leaders are holding the line against homosexual/transsexual demands when it comes to marriage and teaching children about homosexual/transsexual activity.

Leaders from the United Nations, UK and European Union have joined the U.S. in exerting pressure on countries to promote the homosexual agenda. Rather than advocating for human rights to encompass people identifying as homosexual, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s slogan of “gay rights are human rights” attempts to transform special preferences for homosexual persons into human rights.

Recently, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy reiterated his opposition to homosexual marriage because it opens “the door to adoption.” France’s highest court has ruled that a marriage between two men was unlawful.

“In troubled times, when our society needs to keep its bearings, I don’t think that it is necessary to blur the image of this essential institution that is marriage,” Sarkozy told a newspaper. While there may be good parents who are homosexual, “they do not lead me to think that it is necessary to inscribe in law a new definition of family.”

In Russia, St. Petersburg became the latest city to pass legislation protecting schoolchildren by barring public actions that promote homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderism and pedophilia to minors.

Vitaly Milonov, who initiated the measure, explained, “The bill doesn’t touch upon the human rights of the LGBT community. It deals purely with the direct propaganda among minors. Such propaganda is banned on the federal level and we as a regional body are only imposing sanctions. We are only talking about propaganda as this information about sexual deviations affects our children.”

Orthodox Christian leaders asked lawmakers to bar the dissemination of “gay propaganda” among minors explaining, “We do not collect signatures in order to [harm] them. If they want to be like this, let them live.” A regional governor said the ban would “serve for the good of public morals.”

The bill describes homosexual/transsexual propaganda as “able to harm the health, moral and spiritual development of minors, including [forming] misconceptions about the social equivalence of traditional and nontraditional marriage. ” Also illegal are actions or information that would normalize “intimate relationships between adults and minors.”

The U.S. and the UK criticized the bill when it was introduced last November. The Russian response was to increase the fines to ten times higher than before the U.S and the U.K. intervened. A Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner defended the legislation, noting that it is designed to protect children.

Homosexual/transsexual activists plan to complain to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Human Rights Watch Europe called the bill a “blatant attack on freedom of expression.”

Last week the ECHR convicted four people in Sweden of “hate speech” for distributing literature prodding high school students to question homosexual/transsexual propaganda taught in schools. The Court said the leaflets were offensive to homosexuals and thus not protected by the freedom of expression guaranteed in the European Convention of Human Rights.

A bill in Tennessee would limit instruction in elementary or middle school to “age-appropriate natural human reproduction science.” The sponsor explained, “homosexuals don’t naturally reproduce.”

Wendy Wright is Interim Executive Director of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, a New York and Washington DC-based research institute. Her article first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-FAM and is republished here with permission.

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Rutherford Institute Asks Supreme Court to Declare Individual Mandate Provision of Obama Administration’s Healthcare Reform Unconstitutional

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | Leave a comment

(WASHINGTON, DC) — The Rutherford Institute has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that will determine whether the major overhaul of the nation’s healthcare financing system adopted by Congress in 2010 will survive. The Institute’s brief in U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services v. State of Florida asks the Court to strike down the “Individual Mandate” provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which requires almost all Americans to purchase health insurance, as an unwarranted and unprecedented exercise of power by the federal government. Arguing that by enacting the Individual Mandate “Congress has intruded on individuals’ rights to make private decisions about their own health and in the process has disrupted the federal-state balance” of power, Rutherford Institute attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to uphold a lower court ruling that the Individual Mandate is an improper exercise by Congress of its authority to regulate interstate commerce.

The brief in U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services v. State of Florida is available here.

“No American should be penalized for choosing not to have health insurance,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “The Individual Mandate provision of the Obama Administration’s Healthcare Reform legislation is an unprecedented exercise of federal power in a field that has historically been a province of the states.”

After taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama embarked on a legislative initiative to overhaul the nation’s health care system, resulting in the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. An integral part of the legislation is the Individual Mandate which commands that, with limited exceptions, all individuals within the United States ensure that they and their dependents are covered by a minimum level of health insurance each month. Individuals who fail to comply with the Individual Mandate are subject to penalty which is statutorily set at $695 per person, including those for whom the noncompliant person is responsible. The Act provides that Congress enact the Individual Mandate under its power to regulate “interstate commerce” as set forth in Article I, § 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Shortly after its enactment, Florida and 12 other states filed a lawsuit challenging various aspects of the Act, including the Individual Mandate, arguing that Congress had exceeded its power under the Interstate Commerce Clause. In August 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the states’ claim that the Individual Mandate was unconstitutional and constituted an unprecedented exercise of authority by Congress in requiring persons to purchase a product for the remainder of their lives.

In their amicus brief, Rutherford Institute attorneys ask the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the appeals court’s decision, arguing that a ruling upholding the Individual Mandate “has implications not only as to the freedom of citizens to decide how to provide for their health care, but more broadly on the federalism embodied in the United States Constitution that is meant to preserve liberty by preventing the concentration of power in the national government.” The Institute’s brief points out that the Courts have traditionally recognized that the Constitution permits states to make general health and welfare decisions for the public good, and that the Individual Mandate is contrary to this rule and not a “necessary and proper” exercise of Congressional authority.

Alfred W. Putnam, Jr. and other attorneys with the law firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP, of Philadelphia assisted The Rutherford Institute in drafting and filing the amicus brief.

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The Problem of Global Persecution

Posted on February 19, 2012 by | Leave a comment

By Daniel Downs

In the previous post, Raymond Ibrahim revealed the extent of persecutions of Christians for the month of January throughout the Muslim Middle East. Syrian Christians are concerned about similar persecution, if not genocide, if Al-Assad falls to Islamic fundamentalists, according to a recent article published in The New American.

They are concerned for good reason: homes, businesses, churches, and many persons have been attacked and destroyed by angry Muslims in Iraq and Egypt.

Why are Muslim persecuting Christians? For the same reasons Americans attacked American Arabs and those who liked Arabs, their homes and business after 9-11. (see UMC’s article Post 9/11 Hate Crimes)

Persecution of Jews also has a long history. Jews have been impoverished, abused, and killed by Arabs, Europeans, and even Americans. Hitler may killed more Jews in a shorter period of time than other Europeans but the German Nazis were not the only Europeans to do so. When the Christian church ruled the empire, Jews and rebellious Christians were killed as well.

Regarding anti-anti-Semitism, Americans also have been guilty of persecuting the Jews. I remember stories about Americans harassing Jews while sleeping in their home in the middle of the night. That was during the 1960s fascists and communist movements in Europe and America. More recently, a rabbi was attacked and beaten while traveling near his synagogue in New Jersey, the homes of several others rabbis were fire bombed, and anti-Semitic graffiti was painted on several local synagogues.

While Americans persecute Jews, Muslims and others, Israeli orthodox Jews are persecuting Messianic Jews. According to the Caspari Media Review, local residents in Arad Israel report Orthodox Jews (haeridi) harassing Messianic neighbors and disturbing the peace in their local neighborhood.

Why? For the same reason others of various ideologies and religions persecuted them.

A complex linkage of perceived differences contribute a sense of enmity towards those previously mentioned. Among those factors are contradictory religious or secular beliefs, the legitimation of those beliefs by the state, and current and historical events all of which culminate into a perception that persons of the “other” group are somehow a dire threat or complicit in an evil act. For example, all Arabs are regarded as evil as those involved in the 9-11 terrorism. All Christians deserve punishment because one or a few blasphemed Mohammed or Allah. All Jews are evil because of some injustice perpetrated by some other Jews.

The underlying problem is the propensity of people to violate the laws of God; that is what sin and evil is. It is the opinion of this blogger that America’s founding generation advanced the solution to this problem. They believed that a universal law–the law of God–was already evident in human nature and society, and it was at least possible for human to identify what those laws are. However, the human problem colors and corrupts that human ability, which is why revealed law was deemed necessary. Because all human beings have violated God’s laws, human reason alone cannot be trusted. Moreover, it was understood that most major religions and the societies influenced and shaped by them possessed at least some part of the revealed laws of God. Like the Hebrew prophets and Mohammed as well, the founders of all major religions experienced the moral reforming presence of God. It was in that experience that the laws of God were perceived and the need for their people to conform to the right way of living realized.

The issue is not that all religions are equal or irrelevant as many secularists believe. As a Christian, this blogger believes God’s holiness requires the fulfillment of absolute justice. The just dessert for sin is death. However, the perpetual love of His holiness toward people created in His own likeness drove God to remedy human sin. That remedy is the death of the sinless for all other sinners. Only one man was sinless–Jesus of Nazareth. God offered His only sinless son for all of humanity. Those who reject God’s provision cannot be forgiven for their sin. Even though humanity consistently lives according to the laws of God, past sin or one present sin render him or her worthy of sin’s just dessert. Just as human justice merely forgives a murder who one act was followed with exemplary good citizenship, so too a sinner cannot be merely forgiven for good behavior. Of course, I could be wrong, but those who have experienced life-after-death suggest otherwise.

Another reason for doctrinal differences of various religions is the institutionalization of their original experiences of God and their interpretations and applications of them.

Still another reason for doctrinal differences is simply survival. Both Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others developed different doctrines as a result of challenges and threats posed by problems within their own societies including problems of moral decline and threats of other religious and secular authorities. Thus, the distinctive doctrinal beliefs have been means to protect the religious institution and the followers from external threats. This does not mean all doctrines are either mere human concoctions nor all are divine revelations. It means the real problem is not merely religious dogma but rather keeping God law and applying its principles to social relationships in a mutually beneficial environment of His redemptive love and grace.

If all religious people took God up on his challenge to come and reason with Him about these matters (Isaiah 1:11-20; 55:1-11), could there still exist enduring conflict and injustice? Would the differences matter as much as living in accordance with God’s actual law? The result would be a greater measure of peace than now exists, would it not?

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Muslim Persecution of Christians: January 2012

Posted on February 18, 2012 by | Leave a comment

By Raymond Ibrahim
Stonegate Institute
February 9, 2012

The beginning of the New Year saw only an increase in the oppression of Christians under Islam, from Nigeria, where an all-out jihad has been declared in an effort to eradicate the Muslim north of all Christians, to Europe, where Muslim converts to Christianity are still hounded and attacked as apostates. According to the Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year”; in our life time alone, he predicts “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”

An international report found that Muslim nations make up nine out of the top ten countries where Christians face the “most severe” persecution. In response to these findings, a Vatican spokesman said that “Among the most serious concerns, the increase in Islamic extremism merits special attention. Persons and organizations dedicated to extremist Islamic ideology perpetrate terrible acts of violence in many places throughout the world: the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is but one example. Then there is the climate of insecurity that unfortunately in some countries accompanies the so-called “Arab spring”—a climate that drives many Christians to flee and even to emigrate.”

Categorized by theme, January’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity of anecdote.

APOSTASY

Iran: A Christian convert who was arrested in her home has been sentenced to two years in prison. Previously she endured five months of uncertainty detained in the notorious Evin prison, where the government hoped she would come to her senses and renounce Christianity. She was convicted of “broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by formation of what is called a house church, insulting sacred figures and action against national security.” Likewise, Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani continues to suffer in prison. Most recently, he rejected an offer to be released if he publicly acknowledged Islam’s prophet Muhammad as “a messenger sent by God,” which would amount to rejecting Christianity, as Muhammad/Koran reject it.

Kenya: Muslim apostates seeking refuge in Kenya are being tracked and attacked by Muslims from their countries of origin: An Ethiopian who, upon converting to Christianity, was shot by his father, kidnapped and almost killed, is now receiving threatening text messages. Likewise, a Ugandan convert to Christianity is in hiding, his movements severely restricted since “the Muslims are looking to kill me. I need protection and help.”

Kuwait: A royal prince who openly declared that he has converted to Christianity, confirmed the reality that he now might be targeted for killing as an apostate.

Norway: While out for a walk, two Iranian converts to Christianity were stabbed with knives by masked men shouting “infidels!” One of the men stabbed had converted in Iran, was threatened there, and immigrated to Norway, thinking he could escape persecution there.

Somalia: A female convert to Christianity was paraded before a cheering crowd and publicly flogged as punishment for embracing a “foreign religion.” Imprisoned since November, “the public whipping was meant to mark her release.” She received 40 lashes as hundreds of Muslim spectators jeered. An eyewitness said: “I saw her faint. I thought she had died, but soon she regained consciousness and her family took her away.” Likewise, “Somali Islamists arrested a Muslim father after two of his children converted to Christianity” and fled. He is accused of “failing to raise his sons as good Muslims, because “good Muslims cannot convert to Christianity.”

Zanzibar: After being robbed, a Muslim convert to Christianity called police to his house; they discovered a Bible during their inspection. The course of inquiry immediately changed from searching for the thieves to asking why he “was practicing a forbidden faith.” He was imprisoned for eight months without trial, and, since being released, has been rejected by his family and is now homeless and diseased.

CHURCH ATTACKS Continue reading →

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Austria’s UAV Amendment Supports WPAFB and Local Universities

Posted on February 17, 2012 by | Leave a comment

By Congressman Steve Austria

The advancement of modern technology with Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) continues to play a critical role in our nation’s defense and homeland security. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base along with the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), Wright State University Research Institute (WSURI) and Sinclair Community College continue to produce cutting edge technology and development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). However, Ohio lacks the sufficient airspace to meet the demand for testing new systems and to enable manufacturers to test fly the aircraft being built. Bringing manufacturers and defense businesses to our region to build UAV aircrafts could potentially bring new businesses and jobs to support missions at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Springfield Air National Guard Base and Department of Defense. Having the necessary airspace to test fly UAVs in our region is critically important to support the research and development that takes place around the Miami Valley region for the Air Force, numerous private sector employers, and our local universities – all which are leaders in UAS technology.

In an effort to meet our region’s needs, I included language in the FAA Re-authorization bill, which establishes six new test areas for integrating unmanned aircraft systems with the necessary airspace to support the UAV research for five years. The FAA Re-authorization bill recently passed Congress and now awaits the President’s signature. Ohio and our region have already begun its work to contend for one of these new pilot programs.

In addition, Ohio has applied for temporary airspace known as a certificate of authorization (COA) with the FAA. Wilmington was recently granted a COA and the Ohio National Guard has applied with the FAA for a second COA. COAs are temporary conditions granted up to one year while the new pilot programs, in which I included in the FAA Reauthorization, allow test sites to fly up to five years.

I am confident that our region will remain at the forefront of UAS development and can competitively pursue one of these new pilot programs. If selected, it would allow areas near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Springfield Air National Guard Base the much needed airspace and certainty for industry development, training, and commercial manufacturing of UAV’s to provide incentive to relocate and invest in Ohio, potentially bringing hundreds of new jobs to our area.

Department of Defense Faces Tough Budget Constraints

Last month, Defense Secretary Panetta provided a preview to the FY2013 Defense Budget, which included a request for military base closures. I know many of you have expressed to my office your anxieties about base closures in our area. Wright-Patterson, the largest single-site employer in the state, remains critical to the Air Force and to the economic success of our region. Along with Wright-Patterson, other military facilities located in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District include the Springfield Air National Guard Base, the Air and Army National Guard Bases and the Navy Reserve Center at Rickenbacker International Airport, and Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC).

In the next two weeks we will receive more details from the Defense Department on its proposed FY2013 budget, specifically with regard to any potential Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) series as it directly affects our region. Some consolidations may be an opportunity for the consolidation of additional jobs at Wright-Patterson and our region. As the sole member from the Ohio delegation on the House Appropriations Military Construction (MILCON) Subcommittee, which oversees all funding for BRAC, I intend to work very closely with the Defense Department to strongly advocate for Wright-Patterson, the Springfield Air National Guard Base, Rickenbacker and the DSCC to assess the impact of BRAC closures on our region.

(Note: For perspective, see Attorney John Whitehead’s article Dawn of the Drones on the development and use of unmaned drones in America.]

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Ohio House Votes Against the Obama Mandate

Posted on February 17, 2012 by | Leave a comment

(COLUMBUS) – The Ohio House of Representatives passed House Concurrent Resolution 35, calling on President Obama to reverse the HHS mandate requiring employers to pay for abortion-causing drugs.

“Requiring religious-based organizations to cover such drugs blatantly violates the conscience rights of individuals,” said Stephanie Krider, Director of Legislative Affairs for Ohio Right to Life. “If an employer has a moral objection to such coverage, this new federal mandate will force them to comply. This completely contradicts our rights of religious liberty.”

The “Obama mandate” requires health plans to cover all FDA-approved forms of contraception which include both Plan B and Ella, more commonly known as “emergency contraception” or “the morning-after pill”. There is significant evidence that these drugs can cause an abortion by preventing a human embryo from implanting in the womb.

Even with the so-called “compromise” offered last week, Ohio Right to Life and other pro-life groups will continue to protest this overreaching mandate.This resolution manifests that Ohioans will not stand for the outright denial of freedom by any version of the mandate.

Ohio Right to Life is grateful to Representative Barbara Sears and Representative Peter Stautberg for sponsoring this life-affirming resolution.

“People of all faiths, including Catholicism, Judaism, Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others, should be very concerned that the government is forcing its will upon the conscience of its congregates,” said Representative Sears. “This is a critical issue and a clear overreach of the federal government’s power into an area they should not be meddling.”

“The federal government should not force employers to offer a product that violates their conscience or force religious leaders to act against their own teachings,” said Representative Stautberg. “We are sending a message to President Obama and Washington that here in the state of Ohio, we believe that religious freedom is worth defending.”

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The Nextedge Story: “Lipstick On A Pig”

Posted on February 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

By John Mitchel

RE: Dayton Daily News, February 11, 2012, “Millions spent, hopes remain for more jobs”

The Nextedge Applied Research and Technology Park in Springfield offers yet another sad commentary on malfeasant government intervention in the private sector. Beginning in 2005, Nextedge received at least $13.7 million, all of that taxpayer funded. Nextedge, a subsidiary of the Turner Foundation, is now bankrupt, but taxpayers are left holding the bag. The Turner Foundation simply walked away from their obligation to repay a loan funded by local, state and federal taxpayers. The Turner Foundation has lost nothing except their reputation, but even that is spun by the media and others to attempt to make non-profit Turner Foundation a “white knight” whose only sin was a bad business decision, but there’s more than meets the eye.

Take for example QBase, Mills Morgan, SAIC and Avetec, who received virtually all the Nextedge taxpayer subsidies along with the Turner Foundation. These private corporations have one thing in common; their managers and employees have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to former Congressman Dave Hobson and his successor, Steve Austria (Source: www.fec.gov), not a bad return on the $13.7 million received from the taxpayers. And then there’s Steve Austria’s failing to mention on his Federal Financial Disclosure Statement Mrs. Austria’s employment with Avetec, which she began less than a week after leaving her job as Dave Hobson’s District Director.

This is pay-to-play politics at its worst, but the real tragedy is the career politicians and their corporate cronies who continue to bankrupt America but are never held accountable. You can put lipstick on a pig to divert attention away from harsh reality, but at the end of the day a pig is still a pig, and no matter how you spin it, Nextedge is (was) still an ATM machine for Hobson, Austria, other career politicians and those who supply the campaign cash to keep them in office.

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