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| This excerpt it from the featured piece, "Spies Like Us," in the September 2010 issue of Townhall Magazine. To make sure you get the full report, order your subscription today and receive David Limbaugh's new book Crimes Against Liberty: An Indictment of President Barack Obama free! Full stories from Townhall Magazine are completely exclusive to print. ---------- Russian "illegals" aren't alone in trying to steal our secrets. Just when you thought the bumbling Boris Badenov and his side-number Natasha Fatale had retired to a secluded dacha, the FBI uncovers the largest spy ring in the United States in post-Cold War history this summer. For more than a decade, Mother Russia had been running a dozen, deep-cover "illegals" posing as ordinary Americans (but using assumed names and identities, some of them of the deceased) right under our noses. The rolled-up Russians were charged with being unregistered agents of a foreign government and with money laundering, but interestingly, none was charged with espionage -- likely due to the lack of success of their clandestine efforts. While the would-be cloak-and-dagger cabal did not seem to provide much in terms of "intel" booty to their Russian SVR (the KGB's successor) handlers since 1999, this spy bust did unearth some troubling issues.  There's a lot more to this botched spy ring than some Russian Austin Power-skis run amok. There are some serious national security matters here that must be addressed to protect our interests, including seeing Russia with a sober eye. People are wrong to think that espionage ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall some 20 years ago. Ain't so. But that is what foreign spymasters would like us to think about the world's second-oldest profession, lulling us into complacency. In fact, on the contrary, spying is at all time highs and is not limited to TV and Hollywood blockbusters. According to the U.S. government, in any given year, about one-half of the world's nearly 200 countries conduct intelligence collection operations against the United States. Of course, that is what is known, the number may actually be higher. And as it turns out, Russia is not our biggest counterintelligence problem -- it is China that is the greatest threat to America's secrets. In February, then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair, testified to Congress: "During the past year, China's intelligence services continued to expand and operate in and outside the United States. Its human collection services enhanced their collection and processing capabilities directed against the United States." But Beijing reportedly tends to opt for the less-traditional spook modus operandi such as trying to recruit Chinese businessmen, students and scientists traveling here on study and work visas -- even pressuring Chinese-Americans-to collect information that will aid the Middle Kingdom's rise. The DNI also told Congress that the Iranians and Cubans are both active against the United States. Both reportedly share their ill-gotten intelligence loot with America's enemies, resulting in additional harm to U.S. interests. The time to tackle this growing threat to our national security is now. Read the entire spy-vs-spy feature story in the September issue of Townhall Magazine.Subscribe or renew to Townhall Magazine today and get your free copy of Crimes Against Liberty: An Indictment of President Barack Obama ---------- President Obama's education agenda will -- surprise! -- serve only to diminish the role of parents in our schools and strengthen the federal government's control of our kids. His plan is more of a "tumble to the bottom" than a "race to the top" -- and his man, Arne Duncan, is here to make sure it all happens just as the progressives planned.  As the first half of his term in office has slowly ticked past, one thing quickly became apparent: Barack Obama isn't a man interested in change; he's a man obsessed with fundamental transformation. He's overhauled health care and reconstructed Wall Street, and now he's setting his lofty sights on remodeling the nation's classrooms. As public schoolhouses throw open their doors to welcome back students this fall, they may be inviting in more than they bargained for, including expanded federal influence over local curriculum standards, dubious incentives for achievement and diminished roles for the nation's most important educators -- parents. With the unquestioning support of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, President Obama is quietly laying the foundations for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's school system. When the president nominated him to take over the Department of Education in 2009, Obama bragged about Duncan's work as chief executive officer of Chicago's public schools, appointed in 2001 by Mayor Richard Daley. But Duncan's tenure as CEO was hardly praiseworthy. Subscribe or renew to Townhall Magazine today and get your free copy of Crimes Against Liberty: An Indictment of President Barack Obama He may openly oppose school choice as a matter of education policy, but while serving as Chicago public schools chief, Duncan meticulously maintained a list of special favor requests from high-profile politically connected individuals for certain children to attend some of the city's best schools. The list surfaced as federal authorities investigated admissions practices at the city's top high schools. The list was reportedly maintained by a top Duncan aide, David Pickens, who currently serves as chief of staff to the president of the Chicago Board of Education. Pickens says he created the log at Duncan's behest and acknowledged that it was kept confidential during Duncan's tenure. "We didn't want to advertise what we were doing because we didn't want a bunch of people calling," Pickens told the Chicago Tribune. When Duncan arrived in Washington with the Obama administration, they affirmed their opposition to school choice. One of the Education Department's first actions was withdrawing scholarships for low-income students who had been admitted to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, forcing these students back into lower-performing schools as a result. In addition to his Chicago-style politics, research from a Chicago civic group shows the city made "little progress" during Duncan's time at the helm. The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a one-time supporter of Duncan and Mayor Daley's joint push for expanded city control over schools, even describes the city's high schools as "abysmal." When Obama nominated Duncan to head the department, the president -- who coincidentally sent his children to private school in Chicago rather than entrust their education to the then-CEO -- praised Duncan's work in expanding city control over education. During his time leading Chicago's schools, the president boasted, Duncan successfully boosted elementary school test scores "from 38 percent of students meeting the standards to 67 percent," a significant gain of 29 percentage points -- if it were accurate. Research conducted since Duncan's federal appointment shows that when adjusted for changes in tests and procedures, Chicago students' pass rates grew by only eight points. And despite President Obama's praise and endorsement, Duncan's track record as an education administrator left much to be desired. Under Duncan's leadership, an astonishing 69 percent of students would enter the Chicago City Colleges not prepared for college-level reading; 79 percent not prepared for writing; and 95 percent not prepared to do math. In other words, Duncan's nomination and the president's endorsement of Chicago's expanded government control in education were dishonest at best, relying on the false impression of progress rather than actual improvement.  Since the Education Department's inception, the federal government has taxed states, laundered the money through the Washington bureaucracy and sent it back to the states and local school districts in an attempt to improve education. But for 30 years, this spending cycle has failed to improve public education. Despite its short history, the Department of Education's discretionary budget has quickly grown to be the third-largest of all federal government agencies, trailing only the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services. Despite commanding a budget of more than $50 billion, academic achievement in America has remained stagnant. Read the entire exclusive, in-depth report on the Obama plot for our nation's schools and the state of our education system in the September issue of Townhall Magazine.For a limited time get David Limbaugh's Crimes Against Humanity: An Indictment of President Barack Obama free with your order! ---------- |
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