American Federation for Children Launches Parent Engagement Campaign

New website, video exposes groups that block reforms benefiting parents and children

The American Federation for Children—the nation’s voice for school choice—today launched a new campaign titled Parents Know Best aimed at engaging parents in the pursuit of better educational options for their children and helping defend them against increased attacks on their judgment from special interest leaders.

The Parents Know Best campaign encourages parents to take a stand against policymakers and interest groups who presume they are better equipped to make decisions about how and where children should be educated than are the families themselves. The campaign is launching with an eye-opening video chronicling a series of recent statements from special interest group leaders on why parents should have less of a role in choosing the best school for their child.

Many of the comments have gained national attention in recent weeks, including one in which Vincent Giordano, the executive director of the New Jersey Education Association, said in a television interview that “life’s not always fair” while discussing the plight of New Jersey students trapped in failing schools. The NJEA spent over $11 million last year opposing the Opportunity Scholarship Act—a plan to create a scholarship tax credit program for students in the state’s worst districts—and other reforms.

“We believe it is essential to support families in their journey toward figuring out the best educational option for their children, and to make sure that they are not bullied by special interests intent on maintaining the educational status quo,” said Kevin P. Chavous, a senior adviser to the American Federation for Children. The Parents Know Best campaign will also feature inspiring stories from parents who have exercised school choice, as well as provide informational resources to parents seeking better educational options for their children.

To find out more about the Parents Know Best campaign visit the website at www.ParentsKnowBest.com.

Mitt's Millstone Dilemma

By Stephen Stone, President, RenewAmerica

In our previous installment on Mitt Romney and Mormonism, we looked at three of the most significant aspects of Mitt's record: his troubling pro-choice history, his singlehanded establishment of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and his hand in the creation of Obamacare — a plan modeled, with Mitt's active encouragement, upon "Romneycare," with its un-American mandate requiring citizens to buy health insurance against their will.

Assuming that Romney supporters see these millstone-sized "negatives" as inconsequential, let's give these three issues a closer look, then assess the character of the man around whose neck these disturbing negatives weigh more heavily than anything else that could be said about the man.

As we do so, we'll hold Mitt's record up against the standards of God's Word — standards all voters should value more highly than the image-minded message of Mitt's campaign, or the specious arguments of his defenders.

North Korea 'Preparing to Unveil Missile Capable of Striking Continental US'

North Korea is preparing to unveil a new long-range missile that is capable of striking targets in the continental US.

South Korean activists hang an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a mock North Korean missile during a rally denouncing the North's announcement of a planned satellite launch, in Seoul  Photo: JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images

Reconnaissance satellites have identified the huge missile at a government research and development facility in Pyongyang, South Korean government sources told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

Analysts estimate the weapon to be around 130 feet long and, equipped with a more powerful booster unit, capable of delivering a warhead more than 6,200 miles. 

Read the rest of this entry at The Telegraph >>

Poll Shows the More People Know About Romney, the Less They Like Him

Here's a telling poll about the GOP Establishment's candidate, Mitt Romney.  The more people know about him, the less they like him.  What a tragedy it will be if this man becomes the GOP nominee, particularly when a president's reelection is usually a referendum on the incumbent, and the incumbent makes Jimmy Carter's presidency look successful by comparison.

Record Number See Romney Negatively; Obama Outpaces Him in Popularity

Mitt Romney trails Barack Obama by 19 points in basic popularity as the 2012 presidential contest inches closer to the main event, with a record 50 percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll now rating Romney unfavorably overall.

Thirty-four percent hold a favorable opinion of Romney, the lowest for any leading presidential candidate in ABC/Post polls in primary seasons since 1984. His unfavorable score is higher than Obama ever has received; it’s been exceeded by just one other Republican candidate this year, Newt Gingrich, and by only one top candidate in 28 years, Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Read the rest of this entry at ABC News >>

What Mormons Really Believe

Castro Regime Accepts Pope's Request to make Good Friday a Public Holiday

While persecution of Catholics in the United States continues under the Marxist in the White House, the persecution of Catholics under the Marxists in Havana shows signs of improvement.  The Cuban government has announced that it will grant Pope Benedict's request to make Good Friday an official holiday.  The Castro regime had previously restored Christmas as an official state holiday at the request of Pope Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

The recognition of Good Friday is not even an official holiday in most of Europe, the United States, or even Mexico, the most Catholic of Spanish-speaking countries.  The Vatican hopes that the gesture will help renew Catholic life in the hemisphere's least religious country after fifty years of repression and state atheism.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, has welcomed the news and stated: "The fact that the Cuban authorities have promptly accepted the Holy Father's request to President Raul Castro, declaring a holiday next Friday, is certainly a very positive sign.  The Holy See hopes that this will promote participation in religious celebrations and happy Easter holidays, and that even after the visit of the Holy Father continue to bear the desired fruits for the good of the Church and of all Cubans."

From the Pastor - "...Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls to the Ground and Dies ..."

A weekly column by Father George Rutler.

There is a moral difference between sight and perception, just as there is between height and stature. Someone with 20/20 vision may be blind to reality, and a very tall man may be a moral midget. There is also a difference between clock time, which measures days, and moral time which measures destiny. When Christ said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23), He was not looking at an hour glass but at the Cross.  That is why he prayed, “Yet what should I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour” (John 12:27).

Time can drag when there is nothing to do, but it speeds by when there is a goal to be met. In His human nature, Christ was “troubled” because he could anticipate the physical pain ahead, and He knew that it would peak chronologically at High Noon on Friday, but his moral victory was already secured in another kind of time: “Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out” (John 12:31).  Satan, of whom He speaks, had tried to block this hour because he thinks only in terms of daily existence rather than eternal life.

From this perspective, our Lord meant more than physical distance when he spoke of going “up” to Jerusalem. The Sea of Galilee is about 700 feet below sea level, the lowest fresh-water lake in the world. Jerusalem is 2500 feet above sea level, and the “hill” of Calvary added a few more feet to that, and the Cross was high on top of that hill. But He would be lifted beyond measure: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (John 12:32).

The paradox of Christ's Passion is that he had to go down in order to go up: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (John 12:24). He spoke shockingly of losing our life if we love it and preserving it for eternal life if we hate it (cf. John 12:25). By hatred He meant neglect of the moral measure of what we are. To try to preserve existence and attain great heights without risking our lives and being humbled for the sake of love, is simply to shrivel up.  In a spiritual journal that George Washington faithfully kept, he prayed for protection against “an unwillingness to depart this life” which would cast him “into a spiritual slumber.”

Our Lord entered Jerusalem to battle more than a human enemy, and on an immeasurable scale he won the greatest of all victories when the Hour came.