Dakota Beacon

The health of democracy depends on access to information. An informed citizenry capable of making informed decisions is preeminent. The alternative is that citizens act out of ignorance. An independent press serves as a check on elected officials to carry out the wishes of those who elected them. Many in the United States naively believe that the contemporary news media monitors the political process to ensure that politicians don’t abuse the democratic process.

Today we can praise the “Fifth Estate” – bloggers, journalists and alternative media outlets -- who operate outside the reach of the mainstream news. For the most part, they do today what the mainstream media was once famous for – sound news coverage.

The Miracle on Ice eclipses all the other great sports moments because it was about more than just sports. It was our country and its most cherished values against the Soviet Union and its antithetical exaltation of atheism, tyranny, and oppression. It was the ultimate good-versus-evil showdown.

However, rather than joining the debate over Obama’s analysis of the role Christianity plays in promoting violence and condoning racism, the importance of doubt in Christian faith, or the right of a president to discuss his personal religious views, I want to focus on a different issue.

On February 2, 2015 constitutional attorney D. John Sauer testified before the North Dakota House Education Committee regarding the legality of the state’s involvement in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium with regards to violation of the Interstate Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution and loss of the state’s sovereignty over education policy.

COMMON CORE IMPLEMENTATION AND FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ACTIONS ARE ILLEGAL

SHOCKING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COURSE OF CONDUCT

VIOLATED PROHIBITIONS OF FEDERAL LAW

ELABORATE GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE OF NORTH DAKOTA’S CONSORTIUM

NORTH DAKOTA CEDING OF EDUCATION POLICY AUTHORITY

Of all the wrong people to bring up humility. This man was going to make the oceans recede, remember?

THE ENVIED 1 PERCENT; POVERTY RATES; THE PARTY IS ENDING; WAIT AND SEE; ANOTHER PARTY IS OVER AT UND; A DESTINATION IN AND OF ITSELF; WILLISTON CROSSING; TRAFFIC FATALITIES; SIOUX FALLS COMPLAINS; “FARGO, NORTH OF NORMAL”; FORGET IT; NOT THE EASTER BUNNY; LITTLE JAPANESE GIFTS

As part of Alaska's admission as a state, a compact was made between the United States and Alaska; it identified the parts that are wilderness, the parts that would be studied to see if they are wilderness, and the rest of the state. About 90 percent of this new "wilderness" is in that "rest of the state." The Obama action is a blatant violation of the terms of Alaska's admission to the union.

Religious factors are extremely important. The United States is in its 14th year of a religious war with Islamic radicals. Failure to recognize the true nature of this war makes devising an appropriate strategy nearly impossible.

But accepting white privilege as supposition is prejudice itself. If someone wishes to claim this phenomenon exists, the burden is on him to prove it; it is not on those who would have to prove a negative. 

To date, President Obama has issued 195 EOs. But, Obama has resorted to issuing another form of executive action – presidential memoranda. Like EOs, they don’t require action by congress; they have the force of law and have consequences just as far reaching. He has used memoranda to make policy on gun control and immigration. He has issued 198 memoranda, more than any other president. Combined with his EOs, Obama has taken more executive actions than any president since Harry Truman.

The good news is that power still resides with the people -- if they will use it. First, Congress must restore its legislative authority. Second, Congress must stop deferring to the President to fill in the details of laws it passes. Finally, there is always hope that a wisely vetted president with integrity will rescind damaging EOs implemented by other presidents.

So for now, the 529 plans will remain intact. That’s the good news. This episode illustrates, however, the ill-informed advice the president received from his staff on this issue.

Mandating that such firms provide health insurance makes those firms and those workers who would prefer cash compensation worse off. It also makes workers whose hours are reduced worse off.

WHOA, NELLIE! ; THE REAL DRIVER OF RECOVERY; FAR TOO CLEVER; DIVERSITY IS WANING; NOT A LOUD VOICE; IN ALL MODESTY; SHE HAD THE LAST LAUGH; HIDING ON THE RESERVATION; LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD; PERCEPTION TRUMPS REALITY; BE CAREFUL; DAKTOIDS

For the record, the total snowfall in Central Park, NYC was 5.5 inches. And though it was heavier in some other areas, let’s get something straight: in a supposedly free country, you don’t tell people they can’t travel because of some snow.

(Good test run for martial law, though.)

Limited to one four-year term by the state constitution, Jim worked to promote the presidential candidacy of Ronald Reagan. After Reagan’s election in 1980, he tapped the oral surgeon from South Carolina to be his Secretary of Energy with the mission of shutting down the Department of Energy.

Lois Lerner and the IRS conspired with attorneys of the FEC to thwart conservative organizations that opposed the Obama administration. Exchanges of e-mails show that enforcement attorneys from the FEC asked Lois Lerner for confidential tax information about conservative groups. Yet another set of e-mails confirms the FEC received detailed, confidential information concerning tax status and returns of conservative groups. This is a serious violation of federal law. It illustrates how the IRS and FEC were working together to cripple conservative opponents of the Obama administration.

Keep IRS abuse information in mind during this tax season. Also, remember the expanded enforcement authority given the IRS under Obamacare. Finally, observe carefully the legislation acted upon by our Senators and Congressmen regarding Obamacare.

As one attorney recently observed, “…any government big enough to take care of all of us is big enough to destroy any one of us.”

BOTH ND SENATORS AGREED; OUTRAGED, BUT VAGUE;  THE BOARD IS THE PROBLEM; A FAMILY OF ACHIEVERS; HE DESERVES A TEDDY; CHICKEN FEED; GRIGGS COUNTY; POOR AND GROWING; THE ANNUAL STATE OF THE TRIBES ADDRESS; HOLSTEINS ARE EXPENSIVE; WILLISTON; DIRTY, DIRTY; TARGET CORPORATION; LIVING BEYOND; DAKTOIDS

• • Common Core in North Dakota is a means of fundamental transformation of the state’s education system.
  • The Obama Administration designed and financed education reform has as it’s core, the  technological application of assessments using computer data systems.
  • 
    
  • The assessments are explained by the U.S. Department of Education as using psychometric analysis techniques through the assessment process to build databases of student cognitive function and thinking processes.
  • 
    
  • The citizens of North Dakota were not informed of this. Parent and students are unaware of what data is being acquired via “assessments.” No one was told. No one was asked.
  • 
    
  • ND DPI has entered ND citizens into a contractual obligation that has the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) manage the consortium that ND is a member of (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium).
  • 
    
  • The division of the graduate school of education at UCLA managing Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is referred to as CRESST.
  • 
    
  • CRESST is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
  • 
    
  • The directors of CRESST are psychologists as are a majority of the staff.
  • 
    
  • Over half of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium primary individuals are psychologists either through education degree or academic publication.

Here is the critical issue and a political one at that. Once again the sucker punch is delivered in “soft speak,” that is, in the name of “fairness.” The FCC gains control over how the ISPs manage web traffic on their networks. Supposedly the FCC is the “honest broker” ensuring the ISPs treat all Internet content “fairly.” Determining what is “fair’ is at the heart of the controversy. Allowing politicians and bureaucrats to determine “fairness” creates a very scary bogeyman.

I think he'd be on our side – not Obama's.

RECORD BREAKING; THE FIGHTING SIOUX; NOT SO FAST UND; PAULA BROADWELL; ND HAS WHAT CUBA NEEDS; FARMLAND RENTALS; CLASS AND RACE; SELF-CORRECTING; BOOM BABIES; CRAZY COLD; WHAT DOES SHE HAVE IN MIND?; DAKTOIDS

The effect of increased arbitrary use of executive power, abuse by regulators, and the growing relevance of privileged forms of capitalism—usually labeled “crony” capitalism—have been taking down the United States in the rankings.

Two bills introduced this week by Speaker of the House Philip Gunn also propose to do away with PARCC and Common Core.

States that have pulled out of their Assessment Consortium

There is a lot of loose money floating around congress. This is our money – yours and mine. If left in the hands of our congressmen and senators it is at risk. Listening to our congressmen and senators speak lightly of the big bucks they oversee, the risk becomes obvious. They would much rather take our money and spend it than take less money and conserve it. To hear them caterwaul you would think the federal government is perpetually short of funds – which it is because congress never controls their spending addiction.

There is a further inherent risk when dealing with large dollar amounts like those in taxes, the federal budget and the national debt. Their very magnitude makes the numbers surreal. For what it is worth, one million is one one-thousandth of a billion. And, one billion is one one-thousandth of a trillion. At this level, one could easily lose several billion dollars in a mathematical rounding error. Those lost dollars are dollars best kept out of the hands of congress and the bureaucrats and in the hands of families trying to pay for college or a mortgage. Those lost dollars should not be laundered by the government. Why should we trust congressmen and senators to toy with these dollars as if they were playing Monopoly?

How big is “big?” Maybe that is the wrong question. The real question is: How much is enough?

There have been some questions in the minds of Americans as to whether recent grand jury decisions have properly held police officers accountable for their use of force. In particular, in the Eric Garner case, there appears to be many unanswered questions about the grand jury’s decision.

STATE OF THE STATE; ANOTHER CICERO HE IS NOT; ROUGH PATCH AHEAD; STATE OF THE JUDICIARY; TEX HALL; HEY, WANT A DEAL?; CRIP GANGS; HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE BAKKEN; THE MINNESOTA ANGLE; LAYING IT ON THICK; FOSTER COUNTY; DAKTOIDS

TOO GOOD TO LAST; BOOMING BAKKEN CITIES; CASSELTON; OIL PATCH TRAFFIC; BISON GAME DAY; TEX HALL AND TROUBLE; FIGHTING SIOUX STILL NOT DEAD; DICKINSON STATE UNIVERSITY -- IF IT’S NOT ONE THING IT’S ANOTHER; KEYSTONE XL; WHAT’S AHEAD

So ironically, if you can truly live up to your faith, it’s not a faith worth living up to. Thus is the Christian a bit like the devoted golfer: He strives for the ideal of never making a mistake while knowing he can never achieve it.

Another problem with President Obama’s executive order is that undocumented immigrants who are granted work permits can use those permits to get drivers’ licenses in most states, and according to the “Motor Voter” law, they are to be encouraged to register to vote while getting a license. Thus, it is possible that millions of illegal immigrants will be voting in elections beginning in 2015.