State Court: Common Core Consortium Violates the Constitution

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Today a Missouri State Court issued a judgment declaring that the “existence and operation” of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) violates the Constitution “as well as numerous federal statutes” and that “Missouri’s participation in [SBAC] as a member is unlawful under state and federal law.” In other words: payments from Missouri to other states to develop and test education assessments, and the agreements to do so, violate the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and state statutes.

Although Governor Palin rejected the Common Core, in the spring of 2013, under the leadership of Governor Parnell and Education Commissioner Hanley, Alaska joined SBAC. “The Smarter Balanced assessment will allow us to compare our students more closely with those around the country and confirm the rigor of Alaska’s standards compared to the Common Core,” stated Commissioner Hanley in defending his actions signing up Alaska to the Common Core consortium, the same consortium today declared unconstitutional and in violation of federal law.

Just over one year ago, Alaska abandoned SBAC in favor of paying the University of Kansas approximately $5 million per year to create English and math assessments. It would seem that this interstate compact, too, violates the Constitution and federal law, not to mention the Alaska state law, House Bill 278, that prohibits DEED from spending money on the Common Core.

Considering that even the former General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education (not to mention Louisiana Governor Jindal in his federal lawsuit) assert that the Common Core violates the Constitution, federal statutes, and Congressional intent by illegally conditioning federal education money on the states’ adoption of the Common Core, one has to wonder why Commissioner Hanley, State Board Chair Cox, and others in the state executive and legislative branches, have ushered in and embraced the Common Core in Alaska. (Note that Commissioner Hanley wrote to the U.S. Department of Education on 1/23/13 that Alaska’s standards are “nearly identical to the Common Core State Standards.”)

In addition to the $5 million per year Alaska unlawfully and unconstitutionally sends to the University of Kansas, the implementation of the Alaska Common Core standards is costing Alaskans exorbitant amounts of money. Exactly how much, nobody knows: when asked ten days ago by the House Education Committee just how much this is all costing, DEED Chair Cox stated that she “could not possibly answer that question.” Want to cut the budget while helping students? Cut expenditures on the implementation of Common Core – such expenditures are illegal under state law away.

We the People can put a stop to this unconstitutional and illegal activity. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear: the federal government has no authority to condition federal money on the adoption of education standards and the states have no authority to consent to such a requirement. Neither the state legislature nor the state executive – such as Commissioner Hanley or Chair Cox – has the right to consent to a violation of the Constitution. Any such action is, according to the Supreme Court, “invalid and cannot be enforced.” Indeed: these elected officials took an oath to defend the Constitution. Now is the time for citizens to hold their local officials accountable and help the same hold the federal government accountable. This is the intent and design of our Constitutional Republic; U.S. Supreme Court precedent agrees.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: “We Can’t Surrender, Must Continue Fighting for this Country”

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently interviewed on the The Joe Miller Show and talked about a number of issues regarding President Obama and issues facing his office in Maricopa County, Arizona. He discussed Rev. Al Sharpton and described what happened when Sharpton came to Phoenix for protests. The Sheriff also recounted the last time that he interacted with the President and surmised that Obama isn’t very happy with him given a recent lawsuit that the Sheriff filed against him with the assistance of attorney, Larry Klayman.

Joe Arpaio described his Times Square billboard and the Phoenix Super Bowl, stating that people were generally well-behaved. He talked about the body cams that his sheriffs now wear, too.

As to Obama’s birth certificate controversy, Sheriff Joe stated that his team was still working on it. He mentioned how strange it was that everyone wants to avoid the topic of whether Obama’s birth certificate is counterfeit, even though there’s evidence of a potential crime. The sheriff concluded that Obama would likely not even be qualified to work in his office.

Finally, Sheriff Joe responded to Joe Miller’s question regarding whether he was a vegetarian. He discussed that he was trying to lose weight, and that he had taken away meat from Maricopa prisoners’ meals, but that the announcement regarding his dietary choices would likely be made with a Hollywood star who will be coming to Phoenix in the near future.
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The Joe Miller Show broadcasts weekdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Alaska Time (6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST), on 1080 AM and 95.1 FM, Anchorage. It is also carried via live streaming at JoeMiller.us. Podcasts from prior shows are found HERE. If you’d like to advertise on or sponsor The Joe Miller Show, please email [email protected]

American Sniper Killer Not Insane, Guilty of Murder

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It took a Texas jury less than three hours to find Eddie Ray Routh guilty of capital murder in the deaths of two men, including Chris Kyle, the author of the bestselling book “American Sniper.”

Judge Jason Cashon immediately sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jurors deliberating the case had three choices: guilty, not guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity.

No one disputed that Eddie Ray Routh shot and killed the men. But defense attorneys said Routh was insane.

Prosecutors dismissed that claim outright.

“Ladies and gentleman, that is not insanity. That is just cold, calculated capital murder. He is guilty of capital murder. He is not in any way insane,” said attorney Jane Starnes during closing arguments. (Read more about the American Sniper killer HERE)

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Prosecutors Claim Chris Kyle’s Killer Was Influenced by Seinfeld

By Darla Atlas. Confessed killer Eddie Ray Routh was sane at the time he gunned down real life American Sniper Chris Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, say two doctors who testified at his murder trial on Friday . . .

But on Friday, Price noted that Routh has a television in his cell and is a fan of the show Seinfeld.


“There’s an episode where Kramer believed he saw a pig man – half man, half pig,” Price said, adding that Routh told someone by phone that he’s been watching Seinfeld in jail. In the episode, Kramer claims the government is responsible for the hybrid, yelling, “They’re probably creating a whole army of pig warriors!” . . .

With the talk of pig hybrids and other ramblings, “would you say he’s setting the stage for that to happen again?” Starnes asked.

“It seems likely,” Price said, also calling the Seinfeld similarities “suspicious.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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It’s Official, Obama Vetoed the Keystone XL Bill [+video]

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By Kevin Liptak. President Barack Obama, exercising his veto power for the first time in five years, rejected on Tuesday a measure green-lighting the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Obama’s signature denying the Keystone bill kicks off what’s expected to be a flurry of vetoes on measures that Republicans will send to the White House now they control both chambers of Congress. The President has already threatened to reject 13 GOP-sponsored pieces of legislation, including bills rolling back the Affordable Care Act and reversing his executive action on immigration.

On Keystone, it appears unlikely GOP lawmakers will be able to reverse Obama’s veto. The threshold for overriding a President’s veto is a two-thirds vote in each chamber of Congress.

After the President’s official veto message was received in the Senate at about 3:30 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the veto override will happen no later than next Tuesday.

The measure, which passed the Republican controlled House and Senate earlier this month, would have bypassed an administration review of the oil pipeline project, which if completed would transport oil from tar sands in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. (Read more about the vetoed Keystone XL bill HERE)

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Obama’s Veto on the Keystone XL Bill is Likely to be the First in a Wave

By Michael D. Shear and Coral Davenport. Wielding the weapon of his pen, President Obama this week is expected to formally reject a Republican attempt to force construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. But in stopping the transit of petroleum from the forests of Alberta to the Gulf Coast, Mr. Obama will be opening the veto era of his presidency.

The expected Keystone veto, the third and most significant of Mr. Obama’s six years in office, would most likely be followed by presidential vetoes of bills that could emerge to make changes in the Affordable Care Act, impose new sanctions on Iran and roll back child nutrition standards, among others.


For Mr. Obama, his Cross Townsend black roller-ball pen will become an extension of his second-term strategy to act alone in the face of Republican opposition and safeguard his legislative record.

“It’s a new period of his administration,” said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington. “He will use the veto to protect his past record and not allow things he disagrees with to go forward.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Alaska Just Became the First Red State to Legalize Marijuana

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Photo Credit: WNDOn Tuesday, Alaska became the first red state to legally allow the possession, gifting, and growing of marijuana.

The legal change comes after Alaska voters in November approved a ballot initiative that fully legalized marijuana in the northernmost state. Alaska is the third state to legalize the drug after Colorado and Washington. Oregon and Washington, DC, will follow later this year.

As of Tuesday, Alaska’s Ballot Measure 2 lets adults 21 and older possess up to one ounce of pot, maintain six marijuana plants, and gift and transport the drug. Smoking in public remains prohibited.

The measure will eventually allow for the commercial production and sales of marijuana. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, or a Marijuana Control Board if one is created, will regulate commercial production and sales. These rules must be finalized by November 24. The board must then begin accepting and processing applications for marijuana businesses by February 24, 2016. Sales are expected to begin sometime after.

Although the measure makes Alaska unique among Republican-controlled states, it’s well within a fiercely independent and libertarian streak that has at times put the state’s residents and courts at odds with its political leaders. (Read more about Alaska being the first red state to legalize marijuana HERE)

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Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet Was “Deliberately” Turned Towards Antarctica

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Flight MH370 may have been deliberately flown off course by someone in the cockpit, a new documentary claims.

Aviation disaster experts have analyzed satellite data from the lost Malaysian Airlines flight and discovered that the plane flew on for hours after losing contact.

Careful examination of the evidence has revealed that MH370 made three turns after the last radio call, first a turn to the left, then two more, taking the plane west, then south towards Antarctica.

According to Malcolm Brenner, a world’s leading expert in the causes of aviation disasters, those turns ‘strongly suggest’ someone in the cockpit deliberately flew MH370 off course.

‘This accident has caught the attention of the world in a way I have not seen in a forty-year career in aviation,’ Mr Brenner says. (Read more about the missing Malaysia airlines jet HERE)

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Private Drones are Spying on Phone Signals While the Feds are Using the Mysterious “StingRay” to Eavesdrop

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By Barry Levine. It was only a matter of time before drones started monitoring signals from mobile devices.

Since early February, several small drones flying around the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles have been determining mobile devices’ locations from WiFi and cellular transmission signals.

They are part of an experiment by Singapore-based location marketing firm Adnear, which has offices around the world. The firm told me that, to its knowledge, this is the first time an adtech company has employed drones to collect wireless data.

The capture does not involve conversations or personally identifiable information, according to director of marketing and research Smriti Kataria. It uses signal strength, cell tower triangulation, and other indicators to determine where the device is, and that information is then used to map the user’s travel patterns. (Read more about how the new drones are spying on the phones HERE)


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Secrecy Around Police Surveillance Equipment Proves a Case’s Undoing

By Ellen Nakashima. The case against Tadrae McKenzie looked like an easy win for prosecutors. He and two buddies robbed a small-time pot dealer of $130 worth of weed using BB guns. Under Florida law, that was robbery with a deadly weapon, with a sentence of at least four years in prison.

But before trial, his defense team detected investigators’ use of a secret surveillance tool, one that raises significant privacy concerns. In an unprecedented move, a state judge ordered the police to show the device — a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a StingRay — to the attorneys.

Rather than show the equipment, the state offered McKenzie a plea bargain.


Today, 20-year-old McKenzie is serving six months’ probation ­after pleading guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor. He got, as one civil liberties advocate said, the deal of the century. (The other two defendants also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years’ probation.)

McKenzie’s case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order imposed by the FBI — on grounds that discussing the device’s operation would compromise its effectiveness — has left judges, the public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Feds Dump on Alaska Again, Impose New Billion Dollar Regulatory Costs on Arctic Drilling

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As Americans hurried home to avoid last weekend’s snowstorm, the Obama administration unveiled new regulations that, for the first time, propose strict mandates on drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean.

The administration’s proposed Arctic offshore drilling rule will cost $1.2 billion — the most expensive provision being a requirement that oil companies keep backup rigs ready to dig relief wells if there’s a spill. The rule comes as the Obama administration has been making parts of the Arctic Ocean off-limits to oil drilling.

The oil industry has criticized the rule, saying that while it brings some certainty, it is costly and could stymie U.S. drilling in the Arctic at a time when countries like Russia, Canada and Norway continue to drill or plan on drilling more.

“Is America ready to be a leader in the Arctic for generations to come and what do we want our legacy to be?” Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said. “Will we continue to lag behind other countries such as Russia, Canada and Norway, all countries that have drilled or plan to explore Arctic waters?”

“Rules that take years to make tend not to reflect the best and newest technology being developed and used by industry on a daily basis,” Luthi said. (Read more about the arctic drilling HERE)

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7 Year Old Suicide Bomber Kills Seven in Nigeria

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By AFP. A girl thought to be as young as seven killed herself and seven others in a suicide bombing in northeast Nigeria as President Goodluck Jonathan conceded his government had initially underrated the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

The attack on a market in the city of Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe state, was the latest in a string of suicide strikes in which children have been used.

The initial death toll given by witnesses and hospital sources was six — the bomber and five others — but medical sources at the state-run hospital in Potiskum said later two of those injured had also died.

Previous attacks have been blamed on Boko Haram. (Read more about the 7 year old suicide bomber HERE)

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ISIS Vows to Throw Homosexuals Off the ‘Leaning Tower of Pizza’

By Stephanie Linning. Hapless Islamic State militants have vowed online to take over Rome – and ‘throw homosexuals off the leaning tower of pizza’.

In the message, posted by a Twitter account linked to the terror group, the ISIS supporter also threatens to bring sharia law to the Italian capital.

It comes just days after masked jihadists warned of their intention to conquer the city in a video that showed the mass beheading of 21 Christians in Libya.

But rather than spark widespread panic, the threats have triggered a flood of mocking responses – with dozens taking to social media to make fun of the jihadists and their takeover plans. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Former US Attorney Describes Corruption in Federal Judiciary, Department of Justice

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Constitutional Law Attorney Herb Titus was recently interviewed on The Joe Miller Show and described, “for the first time,” his experience as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney where he discovered that federal agents were illegally wiretapping to gather evidence. He also described his shock at discovering that the U.S. Attorney had a “secret passageway” to the federal judge’s office so he could have unlawful ex parte communications with him. He said this type of corruption has continued to the present because of lack of accountability.

Mr. Titus also provided his perspective of the Second Amendment, that its purpose is for “shooting tyrants,” not for protecting sporting and hunting rights. He’s very concerned about the Obama Administration’s effort to impose limits on AR15 ammunition. Additionally, he discussed his efforts in Colorado to roll back the anti-gun legislation that led to several legislators’ defeat during recall elections last year.

Attorney Titus gave his perspective of the Fourth Amendment, explaining that the federal courts’ interpretation of the Fourth Amendment under the guise of “expectations of privacy” is wrong. Rather, the court should take the Founders’ view that only a “superior property right” would grant the government the right to a search warrant. He discussed with Joe why the feds believe they have the right to a warrantless search of everything on the cloud and the implications for privacy in the future.

Finally, Mr. Titus talked about the cases involving Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore. Currently, Mr. Titus is representing Justice Moore, and he also defended Justice Moore during the Ten Commandments Case several years ago.

(For more stories on corruption in federal judiciary click HERE)

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The Joe Miller Show broadcasts weekdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Alaska Time (6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST), on 1080 AM and 95.1 FM, Anchorage. It is also carried via live streaming at JoeMiller.us. Podcasts from prior shows are found HERE. If you’d like to advertise on or sponsor The Joe Miller Show, please email [email protected]