PHOENIX – Public school teachers who use their classrooms to indoctrinate students with their personal political beliefs may finally be getting the attention they deserve.

Arizona lawmakers are debating the merits of a bill that would punish teachers who preach “partisan doctrine” disguised as legitimate lessons, as well as schools whose administrators defend those teachers’ inexcusable tactics.

Arizona State Sen. Lori Klein sponsored SB 1202 after hearing repeated complaints of “political indoctrination in the classroom,” according to Capitol Media Services.

As the bill is written, educators who promote “partisan doctrine” to students would be fired. School districts whose administrators knowingly allow biased lessons would lose some of their state funding.

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The hacker collective Anonymous has struck government websites again, this time the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the National Consumer Protection Week websites.  According to the Associated Press, “both sites were replaced with a violent German-language video satirizing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA.” A pastebin page to which some of the Anonymous associated Twitter accounts are linking outlines the message that was distributed by the hackers, as well as a link to the violent video mentioned in the AP article.

The hackings were in response both to Google’s recent changes to its terms of service and, more prominently, to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which  22 of the European Union’s 27 member states signed last month in Tokyo. Pressure from Anonymous and anti-ACTA activists caused Poland to suspend the bill last week, where members of its Parliament donned Guy Fawkes masks in protest. Poland and Slovenia are now distancing themselves from the treaty.

ACTA is an international treaty aimed at curtailing copyright infringement, counterfeit and pirated goods, and other forms of intellectual property theft across multiple member states.  Statements from Anonymous   The agreement is meant to provide a framework for member countries, which have differences in legal systems and practices, to work together cooperatively “to address the problem of infringement of intellectual property rights, including infringement taking place in the digital environment, in particular with respect to copyright or related rights, in a manner that balances the rights and interests of the relevant right holders, service providers, and users.”  In light of controversy over the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, ACTA has generated a good deal of discussion and debate in the same political and activism circles.  Some fear it’s too much government intrusion for a solution that they believe may not ultimately address the problem adequately anyway.  Others have argued that while such legislation may be flawed, the need to protect against international stealing online does exist.

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John Paul Thornton of Decatur, AL, has filed an application for a PAC designed to tap into the Occupy Movement.  Thornton, according to the local CBS affiliate, said he was watching The Colbert Report when he came up with the idea. “This PAC is for everyone and if they want to contribute they are more than welcome. This is going to be uber-transparent down to the cent.  It will be egalitarian and democratic,” explained Thornton.

So who’s Thornton?  If he’s the same fellow in this article from the Decatur Daily (same name, same age, same location) – he’s a mental health worker with serious alleged mental health troubles himself.  The Thornton described by the Daily is a former member of the Alabama National Guard. Upon coming out from the National Guard, he apparently began acting erratically – so erratically that his family tried to have him involuntarily committed.  A local doctor wrote a note to the court explaining, “He has become verbally aggressive, verbose, talking rapidly, changing topics quickly, and (he) describes grandiose adventures in his duties as a current member of the Alabama National Guard.”

In 2008, John Paul Thornton of Decatur, AL was sentenced to 60 days in jail for a DUI, and also allegedly violated a protection order.  Thornton’s father wrote a note to the police chief telling him he was afraid his son might hurt somebody; the jail put him on suicide watch. The family believed he wasn’t getting the proper mental health treatment. Thornton’s mother promptly nailed a cross to the top of the fence in backyard and sat on a ladder next to it to protest his lack of mental health treatment. (more…)

If the taxpayers of Delaware aren’t startled by the following news, nothing will bother them:

The University of Delaware – which recently increased tuition by 7% on students – has just spent what we can only assume was a great deal of money to complete a “major survey” of how little Fox News viewers understand the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Seriously.

The earth-shaking evidence provided by this survey tells us that Fox viewers are the least likely among consumers of various media outlets to understand the “central message” of the Occupy movement: “Too few people control the majority of the nation’s wealth and power.”  Viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report – both Comedy Central shows – know the most, according to the intrepid research.

But is that really the main message of the movement? From what we can tell, Occupy has been a largely violent, disorganized and hyper-emotional mess that has conveyed many strange and frightening messages.

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For months, the Big sites have reported that the conditions at various Occupy camps have become a magnet for predators, and that the movement’s collectivist method of dealing with the incidents by way of “consensus” decision making, rather than through law enforcement when appropriate, has created an environment that is unsafe for women.  Numerous accounts of rapes and various sex offenses were reported in news outlets, though we’ll likely never know the real number of incidents because of the policies of many Occupy locations which favor internal resolution.

The now viral video of Andrew Breitbart confronting Occupy protesters at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC with chants of his own, like “Behave Yourselves” and “Stop Raping People,” may be something of a joke to left-wing pundits like Keith Olbermann and Cenk Uygur.  But rape is no joke, and what that video has done is bring the reality of how sex crimes at Occupy are treated – within and outside of the movement – to the forefront as a national discussion.

Supporters of the Occupy movement have been on the defense ever since, some rushing to say that rapes and sex offenses have been minimal and don’t represent the whole of Occupy, others blindly and willfully claiming the incidents are non-existent entirely.  The truth is, whether it’s been 20 sex crimes or 2,000, one is too many.  And denying that rapes have occurred is as equally abhorrent as raping those victims all over again.

But don’t take an evil “Breitbart blogger’s” word for it, take it from some of the women from Occupy.

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While at CPAC last week for The Heartland Institute, I met a lot of old friends, made some new ones, and heard some great speeches (the best I’ve heard from Rick Santorum; Sarah Palin was on fire; and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was excellent.) Speaking of Scott Walker, the Occupy Wall Street crowd and their union allies targeted him for a special protest.

First, let me say this: The Occupy Wall Street protests were a big dud. Yes, a few got into the hotel — and there was even a scuffle in the hallway. But every time they shouted their tired slogans, they were quickly drowned out by a combination of ridicule and chants of “USA! USA! USA!” by the CPAC attendees.

But as Walker entered the Wardman Park Marriott in DC, the Occupy folks were outside (in a rather small force) to express their displeasure at his reforms, which have probably save the state from bankruptcy. So I moseyed on down with my iPhone in my pocket and took a couple of videos. A highlight of the juvenile street theater was the parading of a “golden toilet” down the sidewalk.

I’d say more, but the video speaks for itself.

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Some of the most powerful tools in the hands of government prosecutors–as well as private citizens seeking justice–are the remedies available under the federal RICO statutes. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as RICO, is a U.S. federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.

While the primary purpose behind RICO was to take down the Mafia and other organized crime syndicates, its actual application has been far more diverse and widespread. 20 years ago I represented a group of independent appliance repairmen who were sued under RICO by the Whirlpool Corporation. What was their offense? Stockpiling appliance parts and selling them on the black market well below market price. Seems innocuous, but a Judge found that RICO actually applied to our case.

How then could this be applied to an organization such as #OccupyWallStreet, a nationwide organization composed of, some say, countless criminal opportunists posing as protestors?

Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of “racketeering activity.” RICO also permits a private individual, and business owners harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages–or three times their actual damages.

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The Internet was abuzz this weekend when Andrew Breitbart was captured on video taking on a group of occupiers who were protesting CPAC at the Wardman Marriott in Washington, D.C.

Video posted by the Huffington Post showed Breitbart facing off with a group of about a hundred Occupy demonstrators who were shouting leftist epithets. Andrew responded by shouting, “Stop raping people! Murderers!”

At first glance, when only watching the Huffington Post footage, it may seem like Andrew lost his cool, and that he was provoking these otherwise peaceful demonstrators. What the Huffington Post did not report is why Andrew marched toward the Occupy group–what was happening moments before Andrew came outside ,and what had been taking place at the conference throughout the day.

I know what happened because I was with Andrew during the day and at the precise moment he faced off with the Occupiers outside. In fact, I was the one who told the police everything would be alright as they slowly pushed me back toward the hotel with a plastic shield, and I pushed Andrew back–even as police threatened to take action against the Occupy protestors only a few yards away as the latter pounded their drums and shouted.

This was an interesting moment for me, since I used to be a Washington, D.C. prosecutor, and my special area of prosecution was unlawful protesting. There was no question in mind that the Occupiers were unlawfully assembling, inciting a riot and committing acts of disorderly conduct, three statutory violations under District of Columbia law.

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“The Occupy movement, if it weren’t so dangerous to the American ideal, would be comical,” says John Thompson, a Rick Santorum supporter who attended The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which kicked off in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, February 9th, 2012.

CPAC is the premier annual gathering of the conservative movement, but this year not all the action was inside the convention center. Occupy D.C. was joined by the AFL-CIO, SEIU, National Nurses United, Metro Labor Council, and OurDC for a demonstration right outside. The group says it was protesting a “gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians, and their 1 percent elite puppet masters.”

Reason’s Lucy Steigerwald was on hand to see what all the fuss was about. (more…)

Big Government’s Lee Stranahan and Brandon Darby, on the scene at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC, report that 300-400 union members and Occupy activists have instigated clashes with police outside the conference venue at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

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In an exclusive interview with an Occupy DC activist this morning from the McPherson Square encampment area, Big Government has learned that at high noon today,–hundreds of activists drawing from a collective of leftist coalitions including union support–will descend upon the Conservative Political Action Conference event taking place at the Woodley Park based Marriott Wardman hotel.

“It’s a coalition of different organizations including Occupy DC,” said James, an occupy protestor who joined the movement in late September from Orlando, Florida and emigrated to Occupy DC. “I think lots of organizations will be there too.”

James said the following of the Occupy CPAC plan:

The plan is for non-violent civil disobedience. We want to disrupt the conference and have our voices heard, have our message of the 99% against the 1% and have that voice take precedence. Things like CPAC have dog and pony shows, media circuses and it’s embarrassing. We’re supposed to be the most advanced democracy in the world and it’s embarrassing to have our political process look like a reality TV show.

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If you want to keep up to date on the Occupy movement, you’ve come to the right place. This is Breitbart.com’s running chronicle of Occupy’s chaos, political machinations and internal power struggles as we head towards the Occupy movement’s planned Spring rebirth.

The Occupy movement is the Obama administration’s shadow campaign; community organized shock troops helping to spread the President’s strategic 2012 campaign message that we need to stop income inequality. With Big Labor calling the tactical shots, Occupy is President Obama’s direct action to bring real radicalism into the mainstream American politics, while another faction of Occupy organizers struggles to extract the movement from the grips of the Democrat Party establishment.

The crowds may have dwindled with the cold weather, but there’s still a tremendous amount of Occupy activity preparing for an “American Spring.”  We’ll be keeping this page updated with links to all of our Occupy coverage.  Catch it all right here, in one place.

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UPDATE: WTAE reports that details of the original story are contradicted by the official police report:

Sources told Channel 4 Action News that, as the driver left the crash scene Tuesday afternoon, he told someone that he was with Occupy Pittsburgh and said there might be an explosive device inside the vehicle. But police said they’ve determined none of that to be true. They said McGee suffered a medical problem that gave him a coughing fit which caused him to lose control of the vehicle.

“There was speculation. We certainly wanted to check into that, in the current climate of what’s going on at the camp in downtown Pittsburgh, but we have no information — no evidence whatsoever — to relate this to Occupy Pittsburgh,” Lt. Kevin Kraus said.

More details here and here. The original post continues below:

A middle-aged man claiming to be with Occupy Pittsburgh has turned himself in to authorities after allegedly driving a stolen sport utility vehicle up the front steps and crashing it into the front entrance of a downtown PNC Firstside Center building yesterday afternoon. Richard McGee, 67, called Allegheny County Sheriff William P. Mullen today after hearing police wanted to speak with him about the incident, then showed up at the sheriff`s office in the Allegheny County Courthouse to turn himself in.

More images from WTAE

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Occupy Albany has announced an event in March called, The Weather Underground Meets Occupy Wall Street.  The event will be held March 3rd, and is co-sponsored by The Sanctuary For Independent Media and the Albany Social Justice Center.  It is described as, “A book event and multi-generational dialog to celebrate U.S. political prisoner David Gilbert’s new memoir, “Love and Struggle.”

Gilbert is currently serving time in the Auburn Correctional Facility and is described as “an American radical leftist organizer and activist.”  He was imprisoned for his role in the Brinks Robbery of 1981, a botched effort that led to the murder of four people, including a security guard and two police officers.

Interestingly, Gilbert sounds strikingly similar to the Occupy protesters of today when he describes his actions during the robbery.  In an interview in 1985, he described the scene as such:

“It was an attempted expropriation. That means taking money from those who amassed wealth by exploiting the people and using that money to finance the resistance.”

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Bob Lutz is a good man.  A Swiss-born immigrant American success story.

He’s held big gigs at BMW and Ford.  He also worked way up the food chain at (now $85 billion bailed-out) Chrysler and General Motors (GM) – retiring as GM’s Vice Chairman in 2010.

And he has recently written a piece:

Chevy Volt And The Wrong-Headed Right

…in vociferous defense of the Chevy Volt.

You know, the more-than-$200,000 in government-subsidies-per-unit-sold Volt.

The overproduced, unprofitable, unpopular, combustible Volt.  (And January 2011’s sales were no less disappointing.)

That Chevy Volt.

Are we on the Right wrong-headed?  Let’s take Mr. Lutz’s piece piecemeal and see.

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“When you look at government policies, there’s a massive transfer of wealth from the young and relatively poor members of society toward the old and relatively members of society,” says Veronique de Rugy, a Reason magazine columnist and economist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

In 1970, de Rugy notes, transfers from the young to the old took up about 20 percent of the federal budget. In a few years, that figure will break the 50 percent barrier as the population ages and Social Security and Medicare ramp up. Those programs are paid for by payroll taxes that suck up around 15 percent of every dollar most workers will ever make.

Yet the #Occupy movement spends most of its energy railing against “the 1 Percent” richest Americans, whose wealth is not gained at the expense of the “99 Percent.” Rather, it comes from providing goods and services that people want to consume.

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Big Government has learned that a new Occupy strategy emerging across the country is to mobilize cross-country marches through mid-size cities where the movement has been absent, and reach out to sympathetic Americans by occupying their homes.

These protests are scheduled to end up in their destination cities on Mayday, May 1–the International Workers’ Day, which was officially celebrated as a holiday in the former Soviet Union.

In an exclusive interview with Bo Han, an Occupy Wall Street activist and Atlanta native, Big Government uncovered the strategy during a demonstration being held in front of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Change this past weekend.

Han explained that the new Occupy strategy is to mobilize demonstrators in systematic, planned cross-country marches to build new chapters in new cities while converting sympathizers on the way by staying in their homes. Hahn had just arrived in Atlanta after an 880-mile march from Wall Street that cut through Washington, D.C. and other Southern cities such as Richmond, Chapel Hill and Durham.

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Occupy Wall Street was ‘absolutely’ racist and hypocritical, according to a black occupier and his girlfriend who first liked protesting at Zuccotti Park but now have moved to Occupy Newark. My interview with occupier Michael Morgan raised the same issues that came up in every discussion I had with black members of the Occupy Wall Street protest, who all felt that the movement was racist. These accusations are coming from men and women who support much of the rhetoric of Occupy Wall Street but have seen the reality with their own eyes. So far, the cowardly elitist leaders of Occupy Wall Street have done nothing to answer these charges from within their own movement that they are racist against people of color.

Here’s my interview with Mr. Morgan:

Mr. Morgan was clearly bothered by the segregation at Zuccotti Park and that there was an area of Occupy known as ‘the ghetto.’ This segregation was brilliantly  exposed in one of the best pieces on mainstream media reporting on #Occupy from The Daily Show, which also shows the rift between the smug, privileged liberal elites who talk about the 99% but clearly wouldn’t want to be caught dead with them.

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Martin Luther King’s family asked US Park Police to eject a group of 32 Occupy Wall Street protestors from an Atlanta based memorial center that was named after the civil rights leader on Sunday.

The OWS protestors, who left New York City November 9 to march roughly 880 miles to Atlanta through Washington, and through the south, planned on holding a press conference at the Atlanta based Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change “to honor Dr. King.” The press conference was scheduled for 2 p.m., but within minutes, private security for the center asked the demonstrators to leave the outside area that was part of the MLK center.

According to the center’s online page, it was established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, and is the “official, living memorial dedicated to advancing the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Our programs and partnerships educate the world about his life and his philosophy of nonviolence, inspiring new generations to further his work.”

“The police want us to leave?” an OWS protestor asked.

“The King family is asking you to leave,” the security officer said.

“Why?” the protestor asked.

“They don’t want the center to be used for any kind of outside event or press conference for your group,” the security officer explained.

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People inside the Occupy movement — including one of the leaders of the Occupy Newark encampment — claim that Occupy Wall Street is racist against people of color. These new accusations of racism are based on people’s personal experiences with the increasingly secretive and “fascist” Occupy Wall Street leadership and the actions of OWS participants.

Imagine the amount of press the following story would get if it occurred at a Tea Party event; “If you ever want to see the biggest bunch of a**holes in the world, it’s Occupy Wall Street,” an unidentified man told me. We were in the atrium of 60 Wall Street, a location that Occupy Wall Street uses for meetings especially on evenings such as this past Friday when the weather outside was rainy and cold. The gentleman speaking to me was clearly upset, in his late 30s, neatly dressed and black. He eyed the tables of white Occupiers chowing down nearby. “I brought plates,” he said. “I brought plates free for everyone to eat on and what do they do? They asked me if I’d washed my hands. That’s how they treat us here.”

This man’s complaints about his own personal experience of antiblack racism at Occupy Wall Street were echoed by every black person I spoke to this past week in New York. Some people did not want to go on record, possibly fearing reprisals from people at Occupy Wall Street, but others freely admitted in video interviews that BigGovernment.com and Breitbart.TV will be releasing this week that they think the Occupy Wall Street movement is “clearly” and “absolutely” racist against people of color based on their own personal experience.

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