WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Deric Feacher had a very worthwhile dream.

He wanted to establish a charter school in his hometown that specialized in helping disadvantaged and at-risk students earn their high school diplomas.

So he did what Florida law required. He took his proposal for the new charter school to the Polk County School Board’s Charter Review Committee, two different times. And twice he came away without permission to open his school, according to the Sunshine State News.

What was the committee’s hang-up? Were members afraid that Feacher would establish a bad school? Do they have a problem with the idea of creating a special school for children who are struggling in traditional schools?

It was nothing like that. The board members were just worried about losing money.

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The ballot fraud case in Troy, New York, shifted from a long parade of defrauded voter testimony, and focused on two operatives in the Working Families Party (WFP) Monday  - Thomas Aldrich and James Welch.  The trial involves two Democrats – former City Councilman Michael LoPorto, and Rensselaer County Board of Elections Commissioner Edward McDonough.  The two have been accused of over 100 combined felonies in connection with the alleged defrauding of the 2009 Working Families Party primary.

Aldrich testified about his volunteer efforts on behalf of the Democrat party, which included knocking on doors and handing out brochures.  McDonough’s defense attorney, Brian Premo, pointed out that Aldrich’s name is on 13 of the allegedly fraudulent ballots.  Aldrich however, said that “He was not involved in any wrongdoing, and had no reason to believe anything illegal was happening…”

Perhaps more intriguing was the testimony of James Welch, Chairman of the Rensselaer County WFP.  A 2009 report by the Times Union indicates that some of the absentee ballots were returnable either to Democrat or WFP operatives, including Welch and Aldrich.  In a statement at that time, Welch claimed that “my conduct was strictly proper”.

However, on January 26th, State Police Investigator John Ogden testified that Welch was given a cooperation agreement to testify in the case.

Despite such lofty status as Chairman of county WFP, Welch apparently had little idea of how the rules involving absentee ballots worked, even though it would impact the integrity of his party’s ballot line.

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WEST HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Bill Signorile has regularly attended West Hempstead school board meetings for the past two years, in hopes of getting board members to curb the district’s spending.

He says the board’s big-spending habits, particularly when it comes to union labor costs, are jeopardizing the financial futures of taxpayers and younger school employees, and threatening the quality of instruction for students.

Over the past decade, Signorile has watched his school property taxes increase by 232 percent – from $2,584.97 in 2001-02 to $5,994.71 in 2011-12.

During that same period, the West Hempstead Union Free School District’s budget has increased by 56.7 percent – from $34.7 million to $54.4 million – even while enrollment has dropped by 200 students.

Signorile says “runaway” taxes make it difficult for him to keep his home or send his children to college, while the ballooning school budget puts the jobs and pensions of district employees at risk.

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As the city of Troy, NY, awaits jury selection in the first trial involving two Democrats and their alleged roles in a “massive” voter fraud scheme, new details have emerged from the investigation.  Details involving two other veteran political operatives that have already pleaded guilty.

According to a recent Fox News report, Anthony Renna, a Democrat guilty of second-degree forgery, and Anthony DeFiglio, a Democrat guilty of first-degree falsifying business records, are trying to drag all local politicians, regardless of party affiliation, down with the ship.  Thus far, eight people have been charged in connection with the ballot fraud investigation, four of which have pleaded guilty.

Reports emerging from the investigation indicate that the Democrats are trying to implicate Republicans of the same conduct they have been charged with.  According to the state police, Renna and DeFiglio both claimed that, ”voter fraud is an accepted way of winning elections, and faking absentee ballots was commonplace.”

Renna explained that the process of handing in forged ballots and fake votes ensures that “ballots are voted correctly.”  He adds, “‘Voted correctly’ is a term used for a forged application or ballot.”

DeFiglio added that such fraud is actually “an ongoing scheme and it occurs on both sides of the aisle.  What appears as a huge conspiracy to nonpolitical persons is really a normal political tactic.”

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It is more common everyday. A man buys a house, the market collapses and suddenly his house is worth less than the mortgage, then he loses his job until, as a single father, he finds himself in foreclosure with no place to raise his two preteen daughters. It’s a case made for the Occupy Wall Street movement to swoop in and right wrongs, right? Maybe not because the OWSers in New York stole this poor guy’s home away from him in order to give it to one of their own members. Confused? Read on.

A Brooklyn man living in an apartment with his two daughters was alerted to the fact that his in-foreclosure-home had been broken into and occupied by Occupiers, as in Occupy Wall Street activists. When he rushed to his home he found a group of strangers that had broken into his home claiming to have “reclaimed” the house and given it to another family.

“They’re trying to take a house and say the bank is robbing the people because the mortgage is too high — so contact the owner!” fumed Wise Ahadzi, 28, who owns the home at 702 Vermont St. in East New York.

Apparently Ahadzi had bought the house in 2007 for the princely sum of $424,500 but during the housing bubble of 2009 the house ended up being worth only half that. Then, when he lost his job and got behind on the mortgage, the bank foreclosed on the property.

Enter — illegally, mind you — Occupy Wall Streeters who discovered the home in foreclosure and decided that they’d steal it away from “the bank” with the ostensible goal of helping the needy.

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As President I will stop one of the biggest wastes and frauds ever perpetrated on the American people – the trillion dollar war on drugs. While falsely promising us a safer, more sober society, the war on drugs is bankrupting our state and local coffers and costs the Federal government $15 billion dollars per year. That’s five hundred dollars every second – mostly for possession of marijuana, a relatively harmless drug the effects of which are certainly no worse than alcohol, the sale of which is legal and regulated.

Think how many tax cuts we could have with the money we are spending. If you’re a Republican – think how many tax cuts (federal, state and local) could be bought with the money you’re spending to lock people up for something as dangerous as drinking. Think how many poor people could be helped with that money. We need to reform our drug laws as soon as yesterday by stopping the prohibition of marijuana and regulating its sale.

If you think the drug war makes you and your children safer, think again. The International Center for Science in Drug Policy stated: “Drug prohibition likely contributes to drug market violence and higher homicide rates.” But you don’t need to be a scientist, or the governor of a border state, to understand why: the drug war creates violent criminals.

Criminals deal drugs because drugs make them money, a lot of money. When that kind of money is in play, people kill for it. Entire armies of crime have built up on our streets and across the border in Mexico. But we can stop that tomorrow – with drug policy reform. We know that prohibition makes prices higher. Our own history with prohibition proves that. When we make something illegal, we keep the supply artificially low, and that keeps the price artificially high – and that means violence.

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The Empire State is struggling to bring in additional tax revenue it projected it would gain from efforts to stop smokers from buying untaxed  cigarettes on Indian Reservations, reports the New York Post:

The state’s tax collectors were recently calling around to convenience-store owners, wondering what was up. The $130 million in extra tax that Albany was expecting from a change in the law about cigarette sales on Indian reservations wasn’t happening.

A memo sent to members of the New York Association of Convenience Stores from the group’s president, Jim Calvin — a copy of which I have on my desk — said, “I got a call from Gov. Cuomo’s budget office yesterday. In examining cigarette tax receipts so far this fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) it looks like they will fall considerably short of their projection in new revenues. . . .”

The state had hoped to get the extra dough by enforcing a new law that made it illegal for licensed cigarette wholesalers in the state to sell untaxed name-brand cigarettes like Newport and Marlboro to Indian reservations.

Why the need for the extra measures focused on Indian Reservation sales in the first place?

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Yesterday we wrote about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s attempts to end the practice of paying bonuses to public sector employees, just for not calling in sick to work.

Across the Hudson River, a New York school district is also suffering the side effects of its unused sick leave payouts.

LoHud.com reports that employees of Yonkers Public Schools can get paid for 300 days of unused sick and vacation time, a policy that allowed one district employee to receive a $92,325 payout in 2010.

The story was a big embarrassment for the cash-strapped district last summer, when it announced that 187 employees were being laid off, in addition to the 250 who were retiring. The district ended up cutting $41 million from its budget, laying off 90 teachers and cutting advanced placement classes and electives such as drama, music, cooking and industrial arts, according to the New York Times.

It’s clear that Yonkers schools’ expensive union perks ended up hurting students’ overall education.

Still, the financial shenanigans aren’t finished.

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The Occupy movement may have been kicked out of nearly every one of their makeshift encampments this fall, but don’t worry. They are counting on unions to keep them nice and warm this winter, and that includes the United Federation of Teachers union, which forces New York City to hemorrhage tax dollars at the expense of children’s education.

The Occupy movement had little concern about the effect they had on other people or the costs that they racked up. If you’re going to have a revolution, after all, you need to break a few eggs — other people’s eggs, apparently. But for gosh sakes, don’t ask the Occupiers to get chilly!  In a recent spate of email correspondence, John McGloin (who we featured on Big Government weeks ago) gives the weather report and makes lemonade from lemons.

This is from the email exchange between a few Occupy insiders…

We should not be fighting nature when it is unnecessary.  It is cold outside and everything slows down in the cold.  We don’t need to hibernate, but we don’t need to pretend its [sic] September.  It is important to remember that occupation is a tactic, not the goal. Although there were definite advantages to having a centralized place on the ground, our movement doesn’t depend on centralization, and in many ways Bloomberg did us a favor.

If you’re going to overthrow the entire capitalist system, you can’t fight nature and you obviously need a decent meeting space. One great idea – hold meetings in storage locker! Luckily, the United Federation of Teachers has provided just such spot for Occupy. (more…)

“A smoking ban in bars is saying that adult citizens are not allowed to use a legal substance even though they’re very highly taxed for doing so in a place that is private property,” explains Joe Jackson, the hitmeister behind indelible tunes such as ”Look Sharp!,” “Is She Really Going Out With Him?,” and, yes, “(Everything Gives You) Cancer.”

Jackson’s not a smoker himself but he insists that smoking bans and other for-your-own-good restrictions infantalize us all and challenge basic concepts of freedom. “You’re throwing out the window the property right of the owner of that establishment, freedom of choice, a lot of things, compared to a health risk [from second- and third-hand smoke] that is really unproven.”

Jackson’s antipathy for the creeping nanny state in his native England and his longtime home of New York City led him to write a meticulously researched essay called “Smoking, Lies and The Nanny State.” It also led him to finally flee New York and London, setting up residence in Berlin because there he at least feels like he is relatively “free” and “treated like an adult.”

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An example of the high level of debate occurring in New York during the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations.  And the man claims to be a union member.  As always, name that h8ful h8er if you can.

Saturday, marked the second week of the #OccupyWallSt protests. With the endorsements of union bosses now firmly in their back pockets, protesters in New York celebrated the anniversary of their campout in a New York City park by shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge. This, of course, led to the NYPD to arrest many of the—more than 700, according to the New York Times.

In a tense showdown above the East River, the police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

The police said it was the marchers’ choice that led to the enforcement action.

While some of the Neo-Communists (“Neo-Coms“) are purposely depriving themselves of shelter and (in the case of yesterday’s arrests) freedom out of sheer ideology, at least one appears to be getting paid—handsomely—to be part of the Marxist madness.

Meet Jeff Rae*:

Among Saturday’s arrestees was one Jeff Rae (@JeffRae), from Washington, DC.  Mr. Rae describes himself on Twitter as a “rabble rouser, agitator, organizer, labor activist.” According to Mr. Rae, he was arrested for ‘failure to obey order, prohibited use of roadway, and blocking traffic.’ [In other words, Mr. Rae was being a disobedient civilian.] (more…)

From Reuters:

A New York Democrat candidate blamed President Barack Obama on Thursday for his loss in a special election for a House of Representatives district that had been held by the Democrats for more than 80 years.

The Republican upset on Tuesday in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one has rattled some Democrats ahead of the November 2012 presidential election.

David Weprin, a New York state assemblyman, said his loss in a race to replace disgraced Anthony Weiner, who resigned in a Twitter sex scandal, was an “unfortunate consequence” of a campaign that turned into a “referendum” on Obama’s policies.

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The final results from the special election held in New York’s uber-liberal 9th Congressional District could be both an ominous sign and political tide that may roll over the Democrat Party in Florida in 2012. NY-9 was considered one of the “safest” congressional districts that Democrats neve rthought they would lose.  But with greater numbers of traditional Democrats becoming increasingly hostile towards President Obama’s toxic agenda and his mistreatment of Israel, this 40% Jewish district has shifted Republican.

Suffice to say, the Republican Party is positively giddy over the results and smells blood in the waters of other once “safe” congressional districts- especially those in Florida.

“The results of New York 9 send a message for all incumbents, but especially Democrats who live in the delusion that their reelection is certain. NY-9 implies that even some of Florida’s most traditionally Democrat districts understand a principled-Republican message of economic prosperity through less government and more freedom.”-Brian Hughes, RPOF Communications Director

All eyes will be on Florida in next year’s Presidential election, one could say that it will be the proverbial Mount Megiddo where political Armageddon will take place in November 2012.  Could the once supposedly “safe” Democrat Congressional seats in Florida now be in play?  The most high-profile “safe” seat is in Congressional District 20, held by DNC Chair and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Wasserman-Schultz spun the NY-9 defeat rather incredulously, stating that it was a “tough district” for Democrats to win even though it was Warren Harding who was President when Republicans last held the seat in 1923.  But Debbie’s real problem is that NY-9 was a complete rebuke of Obama’s policies, and make no mistake about it- Debbie, as DNC Chairwoman, is married (figuratively) to the President and his policies. The deal breaker for many Jews which set off alarm bells may have been when Obama stated that Israel should return to its indefensible 1967 border lines as a precondition for future peace negotiations with the Palestinians.  As President Obama’s hand-picked DNC Chairwoman, Debbie is in a major bind- her inability and refusal to separate herself from the President’s failed and offensive policies could ultimately send her packing from Congress- a situation she might not have been in had she not accepted the appointment of DNC Chairwoman.

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Michael Barone in The Washington Examiner:

This result is a rebuke to Barack Obama, but it is a rebuke as well—a stinging one, perhaps more stinging—to Senator Charles Schumer. He represented much of this district for 18 years. The now-disgraced Anthony Weiner was his staffer and pretty obviously Schumer’s chosen successor as congressman when he ran successfully for the Senate in 1998. In addition, Schumer has made it his special project to win back white middle class voters in places like metro New York for the Democratic Party.

In January 2007, just in time for the new Democratic majority in Congress, he published a book, Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time. It is a thoughtful essay on how Democrats can win the votes of the kind of voter Schumer himself has won over in his career as a congressman and senator, with specific policy recommendations as well as public relations advice. As one of the three Democratic leaders of the Democratic majority in the Senate—and by common reckoning the one who outshines in intellect the other two put together—Schumer has played an important role in fashioning Democratic policies, including but not limited to the 2009 stimulus package and Obamacare.

This vote is a startling repudiation of those policies by just the voters Schumer was hoping to win over.

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In 2008, candidate Obama famously dodged a serious question by telling America that the question was simply “above [his] pay grade.” Three years into his Presidency, voters around the country are clearly voicing their opinion that being held accountable for the failing economy is not above his pay grade.  Even in California, perhaps America’s last bastion of liberalism, voters are finally turning on Obama.

Around the country, the numbers all point to Obama losing in next year’s Presidential election.  Generic Republicans beat him in polling match ups.  Following Democrats’ loss of the House last year, Republicans just won a special election for a seat in New York that they haven’t held since 1923.  Perhaps the most telling number, unemployment is above 9% (with no real improvement in sight) and no President has won re-election with unemployment above 8%.

In California, however, a majority of voters have stood by Obama.  For most of this year, a strong majority of voters approved of Obama’s job performance.  Now suddenly, Obama’s ratings took a sharp turn for the worse and, for the first time, less than a majority of voters in California approve of his job performance – just 46% to be specific.

Given that the economy has not changed much over the last year, the question could be asked:  Why have California voters suddenly turned on Obama?

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From The Hill:

Polling leading up to the race indicated Obama was dragging down the Democratic candidate. Democratic pollster Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling said that a Turner win would be “largely due to the incredible unpopularity of Barack Obama dragging his party down in the district” after PPP’s polling found Obama with just 31 percent approval in a district he won with 55 percent of the vote in 2008.

A Democratic strategist said Obama has become such a problem for down-ticket Democrats that he was wary of encouraging candidates to run next year. “I’m warning my clients — ‘Don’t run in 2012.’ I don’t want to see good candidates lose by 12 to 15 points because of the president,” said the strategist.

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Today, I’ll be thinking less about the World Trade Center and more about my father and the relentless – probably unique – ability of New York City to bury its dead and move on without a backward glance.

My father was born in Manhattan in 1923, in a tenement building off Columbus Circle. A few years later, he moved to Brooklyn, a borough that was considered the country back then, a place that had more horses than cars. By the time he left there for good in 1966, it wasn’t the country anymore, that’s for sure.

He worked for Sea-Land, a shipping company that was one of the World Trade Center’s original tenants, and one of my very earliest memories is of my older brother and me playing in the company’s unfinished offices in one of the towers before the complex opened to the public in 1973.

Like many, probably most, New Yorkers, my father hated the Twin Towers at first, preferring the Chrysler and Empire State buildings, which had gone up during his childhood.

He’d seen King Kong when it came out in 1933, he explained, and he just couldn’t see the big ape climbing the towers. By the late ‘70s – after Philippe Petit tightrope walked across them, George Willig scaled them, Owen Quinn parachuted from them, and King Kong himself had been shot off them in a 1976 remake – he’d come around.

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There is always a danger in only listening to one side of a story and assuming everything you hear is true. The citizens of New York City, and the media, learned this lesson the hard way, but not more than 20 years later, it seems precious few remember it.

I have been having a strong sense of déjà vu in recent weeks, as I’ve watched the media and the public take sides in the Dominique Strauss-Khan case. In 1987, many of us listened to the harrowing story Tawana Brawley was telling and assumed the worst of our law enforcement, public servants and neighbors. She said she had been raped by six white men, including police officers and a New York prosecutor. She said she had been smothered in feces and left for dead. It was unfathomable that a young woman would make up such a story. So we believed her, and we rallied behind her. It became black versus white, rich versus poor, and it was bad for our city.

But Brawley did make it up, most of us have concluded. She had her own motives, probably fear of being abused by her mother and stepfather for skipping school. Maybe we couldn’t have known that then. But having lived through it, we should all know better than to assume that a victim’s sad story is absolutely true.

The very fact that DSK’s alleged victim, Nafissatou Diallo has taken her case to the media, rather than work her way through the court system, should raise red flags. Any lawyer will tell you that putting an alleged victim in front of television cameras before a trial only creates another version of events for defense attorneys to pick apart and use against her. Prosecutors couldn’t have been happy with her decision, because it hurts her chances of achieving justice.

Instead, Diallo is throwing a hail-Mary, hoping to galvanize enough sympathy through “Newsweek” and “Good Morning America” to press Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance Jr. into taking the case to trial.

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The more I hear people criticize Governor Rick Perry for saying New York’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage was “their business,” the more I want to put a “Perry 2012” bumper sticker on my car. And when that criticism continues, because he also said things like “that is fine with me” and “that is their call,” I actually wonder if we understand freedom at all.

Honestly folks, do we have the courage to be free?

After all, Perry is only saying what he’s been saying for years, and what Thomas Jefferson spelled out in the Kentucky Resolutions (1798).  Namely, that states enjoy a sovereignty that allows them to make decisions apart from the federal government and apart from the consensus of other states.

Perry bases these statements on the Tenth Amendment, which clearly states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” While this amendment does many things, one of the most important things it does is set clear limitations on the power of the federal government. It also demonstrates that our Founders believed every power not explicitly “delegated” to the federal government belongs to the states, “or to the people.”

Does Perry agree with same-sex “marriage”? Certainly not: which is why he supported an amendment to the Texas Constitution that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman in 2005.  But Perry understands that just as Texas had every right to define and protect traditional marriage within their borders, so too other states have the right to foolishly undermine that same institution within theirs. (I think New York’s decision was stupid, but the expression of freedom doesn’t have to be smart in order to be legitimate.)

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