The Week That Was

I took some time off this week. I could say I was being productive, well sort of. I read, I shopped for Xmas. and I got caught up in playing an online multiplayer role playing game; Fallen Sword.

In other words besides being busy at work I goofed off instead of blogging. Mind you that does not mean I did not pay attention to the wonderful world of politics this week. And so I will do a little update here of the week that was. Or at least my interpretation of it.

LIARS CLUB

Well after hearing Karlheinz Schrieber tell his side of the cash for Thiesen weapons systems story, apparently paying off Brian Mulroney after he left office but making the deal while he was in office. It got all very complicated. Before the Star Chamber of the Ethics Committee of Parliament Schrieber insisted that the Liberals had been wrong all along. As had Stevie Cameron. It had nothing to do with Air Bus. Nope it was all about Thiesen and their Light Armoured Vehicles that they wanted to manufacture in the Maritimes. It was about weapons. And Mulroney took cold hard cash to promote weapons. A weapons system that he himself kaboshed when it turned out that it would cost taxpayers a 100 million dollars.

So this week BM showed up before the Star Chamber and contradicted Schrieber. He didn't get $300,000 in thousand dollar bills, he got $225,000. And he kept $75,000, the initial retainer, in a safety deposit box. But he did eventually declare and pay taxes on $300,000. He did meet Schrieber twice while in office, once for coffee at 24 Sussex Drive and once at his PM get away cabin. But shucks that was just a social call, anyone of us could have visited him.

The whole thing showed that both these characters are liars and scoundrels. It just so happens that one of them was once the PM. The other a gun runner.

Now anywhere else in the world a gun runner putting a PM of a country on a retainer to sell weapons would raise an eyebrow or two.

But not in Canada. And it wasn't about Airbus. At least they both agreed on that. Nope it was about Theisen and promoting LAV's. And the deal was cooked up while Mulroney was still in office but concluded once he left. And with cold hard cash there is no paper trail.

Now lets not forget that this was the same Brian Mulroney who got appointed a director of Archer Daniel Midlands, and that company was plagued with a price fixing scandal at the time. And low and behold if ADM didn't buy out Robin Hood Mills of Canada, thanks to Mulroney's FTA with Reagan.

Thats the kind of guy Mulroney is and was. So we should be shocked that he would be a gunzel for a gunrunner?

CTV YOUR BIAS IS SHOWING

For weeks prior to and finally the week of the Star Chamber revelations of Karl and Brian, Craig Oliver of CTV Question Period and Mike Duffy sounded like Conservative hacks. First they complained this was all old news. Then as revelations were made by Karl, Mike dismissed them. Both of them characterized the hearings as a clown show. In fact they insisted, despite facts proving it was anything but, on reporting it as such. Now what got their knickers in a twist?

Surprising and shocking revelations that came from Karl as reported on all the other channels became irrelevant ramblings according Mike. He spent more time dismissing Karl than the Conservatives did.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Wednesday the Taser report on the RCMP was released but it was lost in all the news coverage of the 'Waiting For Brian' Story. On Thursday as the Mulroney Royal Entourage came before the Star Chamber, the Conservatives finally released their Pavier Report on Polling.

Remember that. Well this could be why they delayed the report and then released it on the day Brian was testifying. Tories spend more on polling now than Liberals did
Meanwhile Stockwell Day was nowhere to be found on Parliament Hill. Neither Wednesday when the damning Taser Report came out, calling it a lethal weapon.

RCMP watchdog demands tougher rules on Tasers
Canadians 10 times more likely to be Tasered to Death by Police then Americans

Nor was he around on Friday when the RCMP Investigation Report came out.

Task force says RCMP should be 'separate entity'


RCMP JUST ANOTHER PUBLIC SERVICE

The Task Force revealed that the RCMP is just another group of public sector workers. Yes there was the usual media and pundit comments about the iconic nature of the RCMP, blah, blah. But when you look closely at the report you see that the RCMP is no different than any other public sector workers. They are over worked, putting in unpaid overtime. The force has allocated for increased staffing but never hired personnel. RCMP officers are doing data entry that should have been done by data entry clerks, but of curse those positions were never filled. Working Alone is dangerous for most workers, and many provinces have Working Alone legislation. Of course the RCMP deaths recently in the North shows that these workers share something in common with their civilian counterparts. Due to cost savings, the bottom line, they are put in the way of danger that has ended up with fatalities. Cost cutting, cutbacks, unfilled positions are all the legacy of the neo-con attack on the public sector in the nineties. And the RCMP are public sector workers just like their civilian counterparts. The report talks about the need for civilian oversight, for making the RCMP autonomous and giving them access to the the oversight commission for complaints. What it failed to recommend was a real grievance procedure and an authentic new form of staff relations, that is they failed to recommend unionization of the RCMP.

CSIS BEAT THEM TO IT

The revelation that the CIA destroyed waterboarding torture tapes reminded me that CSIS did the same thing with its wire tapping of the Air India conspirators twenty years ago. Nice to know Canada leads the way. Of course the CIA says it did it to protect the identities of its agents. Did CSIS do it for the same reason?

HYUK, HYUK, IT'S HUCKABEE

As your faithful wag predicted here Huckabee has come from the second tier to be a real threat to the leading Republican Presidential Candidates. That's because they believed their own press. While Huckabee appeals directly to the base of the party. He is one of them. And while he is he is also a Red Tory. A socially liberal politician in right wing garb. The Republican establishment hates him and have begun attacking him, as have media pundits like MSNBC Chris Matthews, that reminds us Huckabee endorses the Second Amendment because folks need guns to protect themselves from the Government. Watch for more smears as Huckabee support rallies in Iowa.

On the Sunday Talk Shows south of the Border the has been McCain who polls below Paul sometimes and is neck and neck with Thompson for falling out of the top tier, is being lauded as the guy who will win New Hampshire. Don't count on it. I predict given New Hampshire's libertarian bent that Paul will surprise folks more than any McCain comeback. After all he raised $3 million dollars online, in one day. A record for any politician. And that money makes him richer than McCain. As for Thompson, glad he didn't give up his acting career.

As for Democrats, Iowa will go to the guy who looks like JFK and talks like RFK. No not Obama, John Edwards. He has the machine in the state, and is everyone's number two choice. In Iowa being number two makes you number one in the caucus's and he has the organization to pull it off. Look for an upset.

PATRIARCHY KILLS

The death of teenage girl in Toronto made headlines. Her father allegedly killed her for being, well a Canadian teenager. You see she rejected her 'religious' faith. Or at least the symbol of womens oppression in that faith.The headscarf. No she wasn't Amish. She was a Muslim. Heck she could have been Christian or Jewish, or a Hindu. It matters not. These are all patriarchal religions who believe in the Father God, and God is the Father. Hence women and children and animals remain chattel to the husband. Secular, pluralist society is being besieged by the identity politics of the oppressors. Thousands of years of religious oppression led to the enlightenment and the revolutionary modernism. Today the forces of humanism face a determined opposition from those who would proclaim their backwards anti-human morality as justified in the name of cultural understanding and inclusiveness. Religion is Political, and always has been, and the battle for freedom is about freedom from religion, not just freedom for religion. Those who would claim that it is only Islam that is intolerant should look to their own holy books, to the divisions between men and women in their synagogues, temples, and churches that exist today. This could have happened to any teenage girl in Canada whose parents are religious zealots. In fact it is the reason we also have young girls and women having babies while denying they are pregnant, which has often ended in tragedy.


There we go a week of rants in one day.




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WHITE SUPREMACIST PEDAGOGY

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders under fire for pulling AP African-American studies

“There will be lawsuits,” said Chris Jones, who ran against Sanders in the 2022 gubernatorial race as the Democratic nominee.

April Ryan
Thu, August 17, 2023 

Critics of Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ executive decision to end an advanced placement African-American studies course in the state could face challenges in court.

“There will be lawsuits,” said Chris Jones, who ran against Sanders in the 2022 gubernatorial race as the Democratic nominee.

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS – FEBRUARY 07: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders waits to deliver the Republican response to the State of the Union address by President Joe Biden on February 7, 2023 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Biden tonight vowed to not allow the U.S. to default on its debt by calling on Congress to raise the debt-ceiling and chastising Republicans seeking to leverage the standoff to force spending cuts. 

(Photo by Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

Jones objects to his former opponent’s order to remove AP African-American studies. The decision came several months after she signed into law the state’s “LEARNS” education bill, which prohibits indoctrination and critical race theory in Arkansas public schools.

Arkansas Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said the AP African-American studies course didn’t meet “rules that have long been in place.” Last week, the department took action to end the College Board curriculum, which is a two-year national pilot program. The action in Arkansas came just days before the start of school on Monday.

The AP African-American studies course would have given college credits to high school seniors. Now, the school districts a part of the pilot program are offering the course as an elective.

Arkansas is the latest Republican-controlled state to ban or restrict aspects of Black history in the classroom. The crusade against such courses has been led by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a current Republican presidential candidate.

Since learning of the change, College Board, which created the two-year pilot program for AP African-American studies, said it worked diligently to communicate with the Arkansas Department of Education about the decision.

Steve Bumbaugh, a senior vice president at College Board, told theGrio the course in Arkansas allowed students to “fulfill a social studies requirement” for college. He said the decision could cause problems for some high school seniors needing AP credits.

“Now that’s up in the air,” explained Bumbaugh. He added, “It’s possible that there are some students sitting in classrooms in Arkansas that are concerned about graduating in the spring.”

Books are piled up in the classroom for students takeing AP African-American Studies at Overland High School on November 1, 2022 in Aurora, Colorado. The AP African-American Studies course is part of a national pilot class that about 60 schools nationwide are participating in.

 (Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)More

Bumbaugh said as many as 25,000 students nationwide participate in the AP African-American studies program. The students who meet the threshold to take the honors course would get high school and college credit traditionally.

He told theGrio he hopes the decision by Arkansas school officials to remove African-American studies from its advanced placement program is “not a trend.”

Ironically, Bumbaugh added, “the demand for this course is off the charts” across the country. “It was in 60 high schools last year. It will be in about 750 this school year,” he explained.

Another irony is that one of the schools that participated in the AP African-American studies pilot in Arkansas is Little Rock Central High School, where the nation famously witnessed the integration of nine Black students in 1957. The racial integration of the school resulted from a federal ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education.

However, resistance to racial integration at Central High was so great that the nine students, known as the Little Rock Nine, had to be escorted by the National Guard.

Forty years later, during an event commemorating the anniversary of the historical moment in September 1997, then-President Bill Clinton ceremoniously opened the doors for the Little Rock Nine, who were then adults.

As White House press secretary during the presidency of Donald Trump, Sanders told this reporter she witnessed President Clinton’s honoring of the Little Rock Nine as a student herself at Central High School. Sanders described it as one of the most impactful moments of her life to witness as a student of the school and the daughter of then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Now, Sanders is leading an administration restricting an interdisciplinary studies program connected to that storied history. Jones, her former gubernatorial opponent, said her decision was a “rushed” one. “What’s next?” he queried.

Jones told theGrio that he is considering another run against Sanders when her term ends.

The College Board is said to have researched and pulled together some of the best scholars in African-American studies to create the curriculum. However, in the fall, there will be a review of the program. That review was previously planned before its collapse in Arkansas.

Who's the Loser?

The LA Times doesn't like Ron Paul. In this blog post they claim he 'lost again' last night in New Hampshire. Fact is he virtually tied with Giuliani.

How come they didn't post Giuliani loses again? His is after all the campaign that claimed to be inevitable, he claimed to be a contender. Ron Paul never did. And last night that one percent difference between his fifth place and Giuliani's fourth was a mere 2223 votes.Giuliani spent millions on ads in New Hampshire compared to Paul.

Rudolph’s camp knew he couldn’t win, so they used the effective strategy of downplaying his loss by claiming that the candidate didn’t make any real effort in New Hampshire. The media, however, today exposed some interesting facts about Guiliani’s efforts in New Hampshire. Guiliani not only made more campaign appearances in New Hampshire than any other candidate but he spent more money in the state than all over candidates except for Mitt Romney. That Ron Paul virtually tied Guiliani is an incredible political feat and the Paulites of New Hampshire should be wildly applauded. Had it not been for Paul activists, the candidate would have finished around Hunter’s 1%.

And Paul beat Giuliani in Iowa. And Paul has delegates while Giuliani has none.

Mr. McCain received 37% of the vote, in comparison to 32% for Mr. Romney. Mr. Huckabee garnered 11%, and Mr. Giuliani beat Ron Paul by one percentage point, 9% to 8%. Senator Thompson captured just 1% of the vote.

		Romney	73,806	32%	4
		Huckabee	26,035	11%	1
		Giuliani	20,054	9%	0
		Paul	17,831	8%	0
		Thompson	2,808	1%	0
		Hunter	1,195	0%	0

Republicans »

Jan 8 Del

Del*

Romney

24

4

Huckabee

18

1

McCain

10

7

Thompson

6

0

Paul

2

0

Hunter

1

0

Giuliani

0

0

*Pledged delegates to date. Republican Scorecard lists all Republican delegates, including unpledged RNC members.

And Paul beat the last best conservative hope the media has been pushing; Fred Thompson. Whom he also beat in Iowa. And he is tied with Thompson in SC where Fred promises to make his final stand; ala the Alamo.

This is probably the real reason the liberal LA Times is pissed off about 'loser' Ron Paul, he is still in the race and they will have to continue writing about him.

Ron Paul: N.H. no reason to let up

January 8, 2008

CONCORD, N.H.—His didn't upstage the Republican frontrunners in New Hampshire, but Ron Paul said Tuesday he will continue on, raising issues that have riled many other Republicans and raising record amounts of cash on the Internet.

"There's really no reason for us to be letting up. It's really only the beginning," the Texas congressman told a raucous crowd of campaign workers and supports in Concord.

Paul, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, was on track for fifth place with about 8 percent of the vote. He had hoped to better his 10 percent showing in the Iowa caucuses last week.

The libertarian-leaning doctor who says the Republican Party has lost its way said his campaign will gain strength as more voters hear his message of individual liberty and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we're on the right track. We're moving," Paul said.

He credited much of his support to young people, and an intense Internet campaign that saw him raise record amounts on the Web in the last three months.

Just like the right wing bloggers are gleefully cheering his loss in New Hampshire. They too suffer from Paulitis. But he just isn't going away or giving up, and good for him because unlike Kucinich this gadfly is getting press and will get more. He is far from irrelevant. Ron Paul is good for shaking up the conservative and Republican establishment in America and pissing off liberals who can't figure out his popularity.

These same folks also don't get Huckabee and his success either. They dismiss the populist as simply a born again phenomena, missing his appeal to the blue collar Republican base.

Working class America with all its peccadillo's and quirks is voting for change, both in the Republican and Democratic party's. And not just a change of leaders but a sea change in the politics of the two ruling party's of the ruling classes.


SEE

New Hampshire Polling Puts Paul Fourth

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FREDRICK DOUGLAS BANNED
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders bans critical race theory in schools

KULTURKAMPF

Chris Pandolfo
Wed, January 11, 2023 

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a flurry of executive orders on her first day in office Tuesday, including an immediate statewide freeze on government hiring and a ban on teaching critical race theory in schools.

Sanders, who was sworn in as the first female governor of Arkansas on Tuesday, vowed to make education reform the hallmark of her administration. In her inaugural address, she said schools need to "get back to teaching, reading, writing, math, and science," and that "the identity that truly matters is the one we all share an identity as children of God and citizens of the United States of America."

To that end, one of the orders she signed in her first act as governor prohibits "indoctrination and critical race theory in schools." Critical race theory, or CRT, is a school of legal thought that analyzes how power structures and institutions have negatively impacted racial minorities in America. Concepts that are derivative from CRT, such as "white privilege," "systemic racism,' and "implicit bias," have appeared in classroom lessons around the nation and received fierce pushback from parents and conservative lawmakers.

"As long as I am governor, our schools will focus on the skills our children need to get ahead in the modern world, not brainwashing our children with a left-wing political agenda," Sanders said, vowing to be "Arkansas' education governor."

The Placentia Yorba Linda School Board in California discusses a proposed resolution to ban teaching critical race theory in schools, Nov. 16, 2021.

"We will improve literacy for our youngest students. We will reward our teachers with higher pay. And we will empower parents with more choices so that no child is ever trapped in a failing school or sentenced to a lifetime in poverty," she promised.

Sanders also ordered an immediate freeze on hiring and promotions for all state government jobs.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS MAKES HISTORY AS ARKANSAS' FIRST FEMALE GOVERNOR

"We are limiting the growth of government before government limits the growth of individual liberty," the newly sworn-in governor said.

Additionally, Sanders signed executive orders seeking a review of waste and fraud in unemployment benefits, ordering a report on cybersecurity in state government, instructing that state departments get approval from the governor before issuing new rule-making procedures to the Arkansas Legislature, requiring state offices, departments, and agencies to drop the word "Latinx" from official documents, and ordering an inspector general review of all previously issued executive orders to identify potential conflicts and limit government overreach.

Little Rock Central High students protest alumna Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ legislative agenda

Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
March 03, 2023

Little Rock Central High School students pack the school’s courtyard during a 20-minute walkout on Friday, March 3, 2023. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)

More than 1,000 Little Rock Central High School students walked out of class Friday afternoon and gathered in front of the school, protesting Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ education agenda and her references to the school while promoting it

Students published an open letter to Sanders on Wednesday, stating that her approach to education policy is “completely antithetical to the values that Central High stands for” and describing how they believe several elements of Senate Bill 294, or the LEARNS Act, would negatively affect the school and its students.

During the 20-minute walkout, students held up signs with slogans, including “Education isn’t indoctrination,” “Public funds should go to public schools” and “Future voters against LEARNS.”

The wide-ranging LEARNS Act would create a new voucher program directing public funds to private schools and other qualifying education expenses, ban “indoctrination” and critical race theory, limit discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms, increase teacher pay and repeal the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, among other things.

Little Rock Central’s core values are ambition, personality, opportunity and preparation, according to four statues that have overlooked the campus for decades. Sanders’ policy goals threaten her own alma mater’s values, according to the letter.

“By siphoning funds and resources away from public education and into the private sector, the ambition of our disadvantaged students and hardworking faculty will be stifled,” the letter states. “Governor Sanders’ intent to imitate policies similar to those of Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation will suppress the free expression of personality. School choice policies which will favor upper-class families would create unequal opportunities for lower-income students. Reforms that attack school coursework deemed too inappropriate for students will dramatically decrease their preparation to face real-world social issues.”

Sanders invoked the school she once attended and its importance to racial desegregation in both her inaugural address and the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech. She said she remembered watching her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and President Bill Clinton hold open the school’s doors for members of the Little Rock Nine 40 years after they were denied admission to the school.

“As much as she tries to desperately cling to the legacy of our historic institution, we, as students of Central High, unequivocally reject her exploitation of our school’s achievements,” Gryffyn May, a senior and a co-author of the letter, read aloud to the crowd at the walkout.

Friday’s rally was coordinated by the school’s student council, NAACP chapter and Young Leftists chapter. May spoke on behalf of the Young Leftists and the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.

Seniors Bekah Jackson and Ernest Quirk and junior Addison McCuien co-wrote the letter with May.

More than 1,500 current and former Central High students, parents and employees have co-signed the letter.

If Governor Sanders were actually interested in increasing literacy rates, her bill would focus on ensuring that our children aren’t coming to class on an empty stomach or recovering from a winter night without heat.

– Little Rock Central High School students in an open letter against the LEARNS Act

The LEARNS Act has marched through the Legislature, but it has faced opposition from members of both political parties. It passed the House on Thursday and will return to the Senate for approval of amendments that some legislators requested.

If the Senate Education Committee passes the bill Monday, the full Senate will vote on it Tuesday.

Central High students will hold a rally on the Capitol steps to symbolically deliver the open letter to Sanders on Wednesday, the day she could sign the LEARNS Act into law.

May told the Advocate that the organizers were proud of Friday’s turnout and expect a larger one Wednesday, including parents and elected officials.

Madison Tucker, the NAACP chapter president and senior class president, said she considered the walkout “life-changing.”

She spoke against the concept of “indoctrination” and Sanders’ ban on critical race theory during the rally. Critical race theory is typically not taught in K-12 schools in Arkansas and is reserved mostly for graduate-level college coursework. Sanders signed an executive order prohibiting the teaching of this concept in Arkansas schools on Jan. 10, her first day in office.

Critical race theory acknowledges the ongoing reality of systemic racism in America, Tucker said.

“Restricting teachers being able to discuss race, gender and other controversial issues within our classrooms would promote erasure of America’s history, our history,” she said.

One rally-goer held a sign that said “You can’t spell Central without CRT.”

The students’ letter describes school voucher programs as a form of segregation, disproportionately allowing financially stable white families to fund their children’s private school education with public money and leave poor families and students, many of them non-white, behind.

The letter also criticizes the portion of the LEARNS Act that replaces existing mental health programs for students with “an ambiguous ‘training’ that is left at the discretion of [Sanders’] political appointees at the State Board of Education,” as well as the section allowing third-graders to be held back from fourth grade if they do not meet certain reading standards.

“If Governor Sanders were actually interested in increasing literacy rates, her bill would focus on ensuring that our children aren’t coming to class on an empty stomach or recovering from a winter night without heat,” the Central High students wrote.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com. Follow Arkansas Advocate on Facebook and Twitter.

QUOTE " " UNQUOTE

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tells Fox News she won't hold press briefings because reporters just 'want their moment on TV so they can peddle their books


White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham made the comment about televised press briefings on a Thursday morning interview on “Fox & Friends.”
Stephanie Grisham Screenshot via "Fox & Friends"

gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta),Business Insider•January 16, 2020

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on "Fox & Friends" that she doesn't want to hold televised press briefings because reporters "just want their moment to peddle their books."

As the Washington Post recently noted, the last briefing was held by former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 11, 2019. Grisham has not held a briefing in her time in the role.

"They don't want information, because my team and I give them information every single day...they want a moment, they want their moment on TV so they can peddle their books," Grisham said of the press.

Not holding briefings where a reporter can ask any question on the spot allows Grisham to selectively respond to the questions she wants to address.

In a Thursday morning interview on "Fox & Friends," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said she doesn't want to hold televised press briefings because reporters "just want their moment to peddle their books."

While daily briefings from the press secretary were a staple of most White Houses, they've become fewer and farther between under the Trump administration.

As the Washington Post recently noted, the last White House press briefing was held by former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 11, 2019, almost a full year ago.

Grisham, who was previously First Lady Melania Trump's spokeswoman, has not held a single on-camera briefing since taking over Sanders' job in July 2019.

When the hosts of "Fox & Friends" pressed Grisham on when she would hold a briefing, she argued that she's able to talk to more reporters and answer their questions outside the setting of a briefing, where only a few reporters get to ask questions in a relatively limited time frame. —Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 16, 2020

"I talk to the media every day," Grisham said. "During my day, I talk to five, six, seven reporters from every single outlet, print, radio, and online...it's just not on TV."

Grisham then claimed that White House reporters are more concerned with promoting themselves, saying that if she does decide to hold a press briefing, "maybe we do it off-camera, maybe that would be better because then the grandstanding won't happen."

After co-host Steve Doocy joked that talking to a reporter on the phone wouldn't give them a "gotcha" moment, Grisham said of the press, "They don't want information, because my team and I give them information every single day...they want a moment, they want their moment on TV so they can peddle their books."

Grisham did not specify which reporters or which books she was talking about, but her comments came after her predecessor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Fox News contributor, announced she is coming out with a memoir of her own entitled "Speaking for Myself" this September.

While Grisham claims that not holding briefings and choosing to talk to multiple reporters a day instead makes her more accessible, not holding briefings where a reporter can ask any question on the spot allows her to selectively respond to the questions she wants to address.

As CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted in response to her comments, "The thing is, outside a briefing, @PressSec gets to pick and choose which questions she wants to answer. For instance, she keeps ignoring my questions about why the administration continues to hold briefings on background, instead of on the record!"

Read more:

Authors Stephen King and Don Winslow offer to donate $175,000 to St. Jude's Children's Hospital if Stephanie Grisham gives a 1-hour White House press briefing

Anderson Cooper doubled down in his feud with White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, calling her statements 'kind of sad'

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed without evidence that Obama staffers left notes for Trump aides saying 'You will fail'

Sarah Huckabee Sanders' office under scrutiny for spending: 'Clear and convincing evidence' of misconduct

Travis Gettys
September 30, 2023

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaking with attendees at the 2019 Student Action Summit. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

A whistleblower has accused Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' office of misconduct.

Rogers-based attorney Tom Mars sent a letter to state Sen. Jimmy Hickey (R-Texarkana) offering testimony from the whistleblower and documents to show the governor's office improperly altered and withheld public records related to its spending, reported News from the States.

"The letter says Mars’ client 'can provide clear and convincing evidence' that Sanders’ office altered and withheld documents that Little Rock attorney and blogger Matt Campbell of the Blue Hog Report requested in recent weeks," the website reported. "Campbell has been scrutinizing and reporting Sanders’ use of the Arkansas State Police airplane for in-state travel as well as her office’s spending habits and purchase of the lectern from an out-of-state events company with a state-issued credit card."

Hickey asked the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee on Wednesday to investigate the purchase of a $19,000 lectern and the retroactive shielding of government records after Sanders signed new exemptions for the Freedom of Information Act.

The whistleblower accused the governor's communications director Alexa Henning of altering a FOIA-accessible document to change the meaning and directed state officials not to share the original with the blogger and also withheld other documents that showed Amazon purchases by Sanders' office.

Sanders' staff also removed portions of FOIA-accessible email threads and directed an attorney who oversaw FOIA responses for the state to alter the contents of a flash drive for the governor's office.

RIGHT WING WATCH

Fox News pushes conspiracy theory about 'reeducation camps' on the eve of Biden's inauguration

Jake Lahut
Tue, January 19, 2021

The panel for Fox News' "Outnumbered" weekday show. Fox News

Fox News ran several segments on Monday and Tuesday pushing a conspiracy theory on "reeducation camps" for Trump supporters.

The ominous package on Tuesday relied on just two soundbites from liberal-leaning shows, including a Katie Couric appearance on HBO's comedy program "Real Time with Bill Maher."


"Is the plan of Couric and others to cram everyone into a digital reeducation camp, or are they gonna set up a concentration camp like that for the Uighur Muslims in communist China to make sure everyone gets reeducated and deprogrammed?" co-host Dagen McDowell asked.

Fox News dedicated multiple segments on Monday and Tuesday to a new conspiracy theory, baselessly floating the false idea that Democrats, "big tech," and the news media are pushing for "reeducation camps" or forms of "reprogramming" in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

"Is the plan of Couric and others to cram everyone into a digital reeducation camp, or are they gonna set up a concentration camp like that for the Uighur Muslims in communist China to make sure everyone gets reeducated and deprogrammed?" co-host Dagen McDowell asked former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on the 12 p.m. hour of "Outnumbered."

In another segment earlier in the same show, host Harris Faulkner described "a new call from the left" to "deprogram" Trump supporters as cult members, citing an MSNBC soundbite from Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson on "Morning Joe."

Primetime host Sean Hannity also ran a segment on the same theme on Monday night, specifically using the term "reeducation camps." The overall topic of "big tech censorship" has become a mainstay of Fox News coverage over the past two weeks.

After going on a tangent about how "Loving a white person does not make me a cultist," Faulkner came back on the other side of the commercial break to have the panel discuss the notion of "deprogramming."

While the material was lumped in with tech companies severing ties with Trump-related accounts, the only mentions of Trump supporters being "deprogrammed" over their beliefs that the election was stolen came from just two soundbites.

Aside from the Robinson clip on "Morning Joe," the other came from former CBS anchor Katie Couric during an appearance she made last Friday night on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."

"What do you do about people who are in the government who don't believe in our way of government?" Maher, a liberal comedian, asked Couric in an exchange that was not shown on Fox.


"I mean, it's really bizarre, isn't it, when you think about how AWOL so many of these members of Congress have gotten," Couric said in the clip shown on "Outnumbered," referring to Republican lawmakers who still dispute the results of the 2020 election along with President Trump.

"But I also think some of them are believing the garbage they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they've bought into this big lie," Couric said. "And the question is, how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump?

In response to the Couric and Robinson clips, Huckabee dialed up the rhetoric and claimed he knows Trump supporters who are worried about being rounded up by the feds, echoing similar talking points to militia groups and other extremists who were behind the Capitol Siege.

"Well I know one thing, all of the Trump supporters are getting Ring doorbells so they can see who's knocking, because they think it might be some government goon coming to take them away because they voted differently than Eugene Robinson or Katie Couric," Huckabee said. "This is crazy stuff when people talk like that."

There is no evidence suggesting the incoming Biden administration plans to take Trump voters into custody because of their voting records.

Fox News did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

As the Trump administration fills board seats, critics see an alarming attempt to remake government


Alexander Nazaryan
National Correspondent,
Yahoo News•January 15, 2020


President Trump greets actor Jon Voight, a National Medal of Arts recipient, during the award ceremony on Nov. 21. (Photo: Tom Brenner/Reuters)

WASHINGTON — On April 10, 2017, Daniel Jorjani, a top Interior Department political appointee, sent an email to Brian Hooks, president of the conservative Charles Koch Foundation, soliciting individuals to join the board of a charitable arm of the National Park Service.

“Would any of the stakeholders’ families or key network participants be interested in joining the board of the National Park Foundation?” Jorjani wrote. “It is one of our top-tier boards.” He added that the board “has a few openings.”

There are many such boards affiliated with government agencies and government-funded institutions, from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is a federal corporation, to the not-for-profit Kennedy Center for the Arts. Though the boards have different functions, in one way or another they exert influence on some aspect of the federal bureaucracy, whether by providing oversight or — in a case like the National Park Foundation — raising money.

While board appointees have long been selected because of their political affiliation, wealth or stature, the president’s opponents charge he has appointed individuals who are more ideologically motivated than their predecessors. In some cases, he is appointing board members who have opposed the institutions they are supposed to now monitor or guide.

“Someone who is going to thwart the mission of an organization — any organization, be it a government, for-profit or charitable entity — should not be on the governing board, the group tasked with ensuring the fiduciary and strategic success that furthers that mission,” said Doug White, a leading expert on the frequently contentious workings of corporate and philanthropic boards. “That’s like ‘Board Governance 101.’”

For the Trump administration, appointing board members may be an effective and little-noticed means of weakening a federal apparatus it fundamentally distrusts. Not only did Donald Trump come into office with “a disruptor mindset,” said governance expert Scott R. Anderson of the center-left-leaning Brookings Institution, but he has delegated that disruption to “further-out-there wings of the Republican Party,” beyond the bounds of ordinary conservatism.

Attaching boards to government agencies is an effect of the Progressive Era of the early 20th century, Baruch College government professor Jerry Mitchell wrote in a 1997 scholarly article on board governance. “Boards and commissions were viewed as an intelligent way to make the public sector more democratic and competent,” he wrote, because these entities would include neither elected officials nor career public servants.

Daniel Jorjani. (Photo: DOI.gov)

As the federal government grew throughout the 20th century, the number of boards and councils proliferated accordingly. According to a 2004 report by the Government Accountability Office, there are more than 900 advisory boards, which have varying degrees of influence. President Bill Clinton, for example, created an advisory board on race in 1997. The council produced a report, whose recommendations appear to have been largely ignored, and it was subsequently disbanded.

Some boards are permanent, while others are not. The National Space Council, which was created by George H.W. Bush, was disbanded by Bill Clinton, only to return more than two decades later under Trump.

Each board has its own rules: Some require Senate confirmation for nominees, and others do not. The length of service also varies, with some board appointments lasting several years and others over a decade. Some are appointed directly by the president, while some are picked by others in his administration.

So while Trump has often railed against a bureaucratic “deep state” working against his agenda, his board appointments, many of which may outlast his presidency, could serve an internal Republican resistance to a future Democratic administration.

These oversight or advisory bodies, which have varying degrees of power and efficacy, cut across a vast terrain of the federal bureaucracy. Trump’s most notorious nominations in this category were to the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, which is among the most significant in the entire government. Other boards, like the National Organic Standards Board or the White House evangelical council, are only advisory in nature. Still others are attached to tax-exempt organizations like the Kennedy Center and function almost like any other philanthropic board.

In the case of the Federal Reserve board of governors — which performs “monetary policy responsibilities,” alongside the Fed’s regional bank presidents — Trump attempted to fill vacant seats on that board with two of the most controversial nominations. One of those was Herman Cain, the pizza magnate and onetime Republican presidential candidate. Long-standing accusations of sexual misconduct against Cain did not appear to deter Trump. The other nominee floated was Steven Moore, whose thinking on monetary policy was held in low regard, with Washington Post economics columnist Catherine Rampell calling Moore “easily confused.”

Both of those appointments would have required Senate confirmation, and Trump scuttled the plan after it became clear that congressional Republicans had little will to fight on behalf of either Cain or Moore.

At the National Park Foundation, political appointee Daniel Jorjani’s efforts also came to naught. Koch Foundation president Brian Hooks responded politely but unenthusiastically to the outreach by Jorjani. “I’ll have a look and let you know if there’s an opportunity to learn more,” he wrote to Jorjani, who several years before had himself worked for the Koch Foundation. Before that, Jorjani had been an Interior Department official in the George W. Bush administration, where he described his duties as “limiting damage from climate change alarmists,” according to the résumé he submitted to Congress.

Neither Hooks nor Jorjani responded to emails, and neither was made available for comment by his respective organization. An official with the Koch philanthropic network Stand Together told Yahoo News that there were no further communications between Jorjani and the Koch Foundation on the issue of National Park Foundation board appointments.

That hardly soothes critics. Jayson O’Neill of the Western Values Project, which uncovered the Jorjani-Hooks emails through a Freedom of Information Act request, told Yahoo News the emails were proof that “the Trump administration is dead set on politicizing a board that should be solely focused on supporting America’s national parks.”

Even without Koch influence, the board of the National Park Foundation was already becoming more controversial under Trump, as were many other boards across the executive branch.

Perhaps the most contentious appointment to the National Park Foundation board has been that of Susan LaPierre, the spouse of National Rifle Association executive director Wayne LaPierre.

National Rifle Association executive director Wayne LaPierre and his wife, Susan, in 2012. (Photo: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Larry King Cardiac Foundation)

A former Interior official familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition that his identity remain confidential, said that Ryan Zinke, who was the interior secretary until being forced to resign over charges of unethical behavior, bypassed the ordinary advisory process by which board members are selected in picking LaPierre. The former official said that as far as he was aware, that appointment was an anomaly and the board does not yet appear to be compromised, as a whole, by Trump’s appointments.

He did worry, however, that if Trump were to win a second term, the National Park Foundation board could potentially succumb wholesale to politics.

In other areas, some of Trump’s appointments have been in line with those of previous presidents. For example, he was generally praised for reconstituting the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and while some noted that the council was heavy on private industry, those executives were both credentialed and accomplished.

Such praise, however, has been rare.

In May 2018 the president named Stephen Feinberg, a reliable Republican donor who had contributed to Trump’s 2016 campaign, to lead the president's Intelligence Advisory Board, which has been in place since 1956. Feinberg had been considered for another intelligence post, but even some Republicans took note of his lack of qualifications. “As far as I can tell, this individual does not have national security experience,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said of Feinberg, “nor does he appear to have experience in intelligence.”

White, the board governance expert, was even tougher in his assessment. “These are terrible appointments,” he said, speaking of Feinberg specifically.

Appointment to the intelligence board does not require Senate confirmation, meaning that Feinberg’s critics could do little to stop it.

Stephen Feinberg in 2008. (Photo: Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP)

Trump isn’t the first president to award donors with board membership, and James Pfiffner, a scholar of the presidency at George Mason University, explained that “board seats are often used to reward political allies, regardless of qualifications.”

President Barack Obama also faced charges of politicizing the intelligence board. A few months after Chuck Hagel, the respected Republican senator from Nebraska who had served in Vietnam, left the board to take charge of the Pentagon in early 2013, 10 of the panel’s members were dismissed without any warning or explanation. Among them was former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, who had been one of the authors of the much-lauded report on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“I didn’t want to stay anyway,” Hamilton recalls, adding that there were “plenty of reasons to kick me off.”

Still, those reasons were never given to Hamilton. The intelligence board eventually added new members, among them a Chicago investor to Obama’s political campaign and the chairman of UPS.

Without discussing any specific names, Hamilton says that heading the intelligence panel is not “the business for an amateur” lacking significant experience. “I don’t want any president to play around with the intelligence community,” he adds.

Even if Obama and other presidents engaged in politics when making board appointments, critics charge that Trump has nominated people who are actively opposed to the missions of the agencies and organizations they are supposed to be supporting.

For example, to the board of Amtrak, Trump appointed Todd Rokita, a former Republican congressman from Indiana. Critics quickly noted that Rokita had voted several times to strip Amtrak of its federal funding. When he was first nominated, progressive detractors branded him “unfit for public office.” Despite that, Rokita appears to be inching toward confirmation by the Senate.

Even if some board memberships are purely symbolic, they can be significant, especially when it comes to any organization under the aegis of the White House.

Obama had chosen an environmental policy expert from California to head the Council on Environmental Quality. She was eventually succeeded by an expert on public lands.

Trump went in a markedly different direction, nominating Kathleen Hartnett White, a political operative from Texas who has expressed strong, harshly worded doubt about whether human activity causes global warming. Even for a Republican-controlled Senate, White proved too much at a time of growing concern about the climate; her nomination was eventually dropped.

Citing the cases of Amtrak and the Council on Environmental Quality, Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen, a left-leaning government watchdog group, accused Trump of using the boards to advance a harmful agenda. “If personnel is policy, the staffing choices made by the administration are indicative of a lack of concern for the health and well-being of the nation,” she said.

Congress also recognizes the power of board seats. Under Obama, a Republican-controlled Senate refused to confirm the president’s appointees and kept three seats open on the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal energy infrastructure corporation that works in the upper South.

Trump eventually filled one of those with William B. Kilbride, a coal executive whose nomination was ardently opposed by Democrats. That, however, didn’t stop the Tennessee Valley Authority from voting to close two coal plants earlier this year.

Appointments to boards dealing with arts and culture can also be a useful means of sending signals to political supporters, especially in a political environment in which symbolic victories are as sought after as serious policy accomplishments.

Fox News contributors Mike Huckabee and his daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders in an interview on "The Story With Martha MacCallum" on Sept. 17. (Photo: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

In that vein, Trump announced new members to the board of the Kennedy Center earlier this year. Among these were Jon Voight, one of the few vociferous conservatives in Hollywood, and Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, father of former White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Fox News mainstay (Huckabee has actually pleaded with Trump to not cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts).

Trump also established the White House evangelical advisory board, which consists mostly of right-leaning religious and political figures, including former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Jerry Falwell Jr., the Liberty University leader who has been implicated in a number of personal and financial scandals. The evangelical board is being sued for conducting its work in secret.

One of the members of that board is Paula White, a Pentecostal televangelist who preaches the prosperity gospel and has been hounded by controversy. The board proved a perfect springboard for White. In November, Trump announced that she would formally join his administration to head its office of faith.

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High school teacher and students sue over Arkansas' ban on critical race theory

ANDREW DeMILLO
Updated Mon, March 25, 2024 


 Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs an education overhaul bill into law, March 8, 2023, at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark. On Monday, March 25, 2024, a high school teacher and two students sued Arkansas over the state's ban on critical race theory and “indoctrination” in public schools, asking a federal judge to strike down the restrictions as unconstitutional. 

(AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo, File)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A high school teacher and two students sued Arkansas on Monday over the state's ban on critical race theory and “indoctrination” in public schools, asking a federal judge to strike down the restrictions as unconstitutional.

The lawsuit by the teacher and students from Little Rock Central High School, site of the historic 1957 racial desegregation crisis, stems from the state's decision last year that an Advanced Placement course on African American Studies would not count toward state credit.

The lawsuit argues the restrictions, which were among a number of education changes that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law last year, violate free speech protections under the First Amendment and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

“It absolutely chills free speech” and “discriminates on the basis of race,” the lawsuit said.

“Indeed, defendants’ brazen attack on full classroom participation for all students in 2024 is reminiscent of the state’s brazen attack on full classroom participation for all students in 1957,” the lawsuit said.

Arkansas and other Republican-led states in recent years have placed restrictions on how race is taught in the classroom, including prohibitions on critical race theory, an academic framework dating to the 1970s that centers on the idea that racism is embedded in the nation’s institutions. The theory is not a fixture of K-12 education, and Arkansas' ban does not define what would be considered critical race theory. The lawsuit argues that the definition the law uses for prohibited indoctrination is overly broad and vague.

Tennessee educators filed a similar lawsuit last year challenging that state's sweeping bans on teaching certain concepts of race, gender and bias in classroom.

Arkansas' restrictions mirror an executive order Sanders signed on her first day in office last year. The Republican governor defended the law and criticized the lawsuit.

“In the state of Arkansas, we will not indoctrinate our kids and teach them to hate America or each other,” Sanders said in a statement. “It’s sad the radical left continues to lie and play political games with our kids’ futures.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blocked high schools in his state from teaching the AP African American Studies course. The College Board released the latest updated framework for the course in December, months after initial revisions prompted criticism the nonprofit was bowing to conservative backlash to the class.

Arkansas education officials last year said the AP African American studies class couldn’t be part of the state’s advanced placement course offerings because it’s still a pilot program and hasn’t been vetted by the state yet to determine whether it complied with the law.

Central High and the five other schools offering the class said they would continue doing so as a local elective. The class still counts toward a student's GPA.

The lawsuit is the second challenge against Sanders' LEARNS Act, which also created a new school voucher program. The Arkansas Supreme Court in October rejected a challenge to the law that questioned the Legislature's procedural vote that allowed it to take effect immediately.

"The LEARNS Act has brought much-needed reforms to Arkansas. I have successfully defended (the law) from challenges before, and I am prepared to vigorously defend it again,” Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said.

African American Studies students sue over Arkansas LEARNS Act ‘indoctrination’ section

Neale Zeringue

KARK
Mon, March 25, 2024 

African American Studies students sue over Arkansas LEARNS Act ‘indoctrination’ section


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas LEARNS Act is being challenged in federal court by students and a teacher in the Little Rock School District and the state officials are not backing down.

Across the street from the historic Central High School Monday, the plaintiffs called section 16 of the law prohibiting “indoctrination” in Arkansas Schools unconstitutional and asked the court to immediately stop the state from enforcing it.

Arkansas public school students no longer receiving AMI days; how this is impacted by LEARNS Act

The law caused uncertainty for students taking AP African American Studies days before the 2023-2024 school year started because it was pulled from the course code before the course framework was altered to exclude critical race theory and address concerns in themes like “intersections of identity” and “resistance and resilience”.

“This course is just a way for me to learn another perspective,” Sadie Belle Reynolds argued.

Reynolds, a plaintiff and Central High School freshman taking AP African American Studies, is one of five plaintiffs including her mother, a classmate and her mother and the teacher of AP African American Studies Ruthie Walls.

“If we don’t be very careful, we’ll end up in the same awkward position we were years ago, and we have people to stand up and say no,” Walls said.

She and other plaintiffs in a 56-page lawsuit claim the LEARNS Act section on “Indoctrination” which calls out “Critical Race Theory” violates the First Amendment protections of free speech and the Fourteenth Amendment protections of equal protection under the law.

In a statement Monday Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the lawsuit.

“In the State of Arkansas, we will not indoctrinate our kids and teach them to hate America or each other,” she said. “It’s sad the radical left continues to lie and play political games with our kids’ futures.”

Arkansas Education Secretary sends letter to 5 school districts concerning AP African American Studies

Jennifer Reynolds, plaintiff, mother of a student taking African American Studies, said the class her daughter attends fosters understanding not division.

“I don’t really understand what is the boogeyman in all of this and what is the fear of the indoctrination,” Reynolds said.

Part of the lawsuit is for damages. Mike Laux, one of the attorneys representing the teacher, students, and parents said the state is not covering the almost $100 final exam fee that it does for other AP classes.

Arkansas Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva called some accusations of the lawsuit “a total lie.”

“The lawsuit falsely accuses ADE of not allowing students to participate in the AP African American Studies pilot program and stripped them from the benefits that the course provides – a total lie. The department advised schools they could offer local course credit to students who complete the pilot, and six schools participated. After discussions, College Board updated course framework and assured it does not violate Arkansas law. The department approved the course for the 24-25 school year and will continue to work with districts to ensure courses offered to students do not violate Arkansas state law.”

ADE Secretary Jacob Oliva

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin also chimed in through a statement.

“The LEARNS Act has brought much-needed reforms to Arkansas,” Griffin said. “I have successfully defended it from challenges before, and I am prepared to vigorously defend it again.”

Sadie Belle Reynolds attended school growing up in Africa and South America, where she was a minority white student. She said learning what people did in the past upholding slavery and preventing civil rights hasn’t shamed her or lessened her love of America. This law has struck a nerve though.

“It makes me like aggravated and confused on why someone would want to cover up someone’s perspective in a story and history, true history and it makes you think and not repeat the same problems in the future,” she said.

Confusion over AP African American Studies class in Arkansas on first day of school

The case will be heard in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas Central Division. No court dates have been set. A motion for preliminary injunction will be filed within the week to accelerate the process according to Laux.

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT

He claims some of the students’ speeches in class could broach the critical race theory topic so he is asking for a clear answer before then.