School worksheet tells kids GOP thinks helping poor 'waste of money,' parent claims

A Wisconsin mother claims her 16-year-old son's classroom assignment last week described Republicans as opposed to helping the poor because "it's a waste of money."
The woman said her son, a junior at Nathan Hale High School in West Allis, Wisc., was asked, along with other students, to complete an assignment about different views on the political spectrum while in a U.S. government and politics class on Thursday.
The assignment listed a series of quotes and required students to identify which party affiliation best represented each statement.
The first quote read, "We should not help the poor, it’s a waste of money."
The mother, who asked only to be identified as "Heather" to protect her son's privacy, said he chose option "E" for "Fascist" because he "didn't know what else could be the answer."
When the assignment was returned, the answer was marked as incorrect and the teacher wrote in option "D" for "Conservative/Republican" instead, his mother told FoxNews.com.
"I picked my son up from school on Thursday and asked him what was wrong and he brought up that quote," she said. "He asked, 'Mom, where would you say this went on the political spectrum?'"
"I said, 'Nowhere. I don’t know any political party that espouses not helping the poor,'" she told FoxNews.com. "Once we got home, I looked at the work sheet and saw that his answer was marked wrong. The teacher had put the correct answer in the margin and marked it conservative."
"I was shocked and then I was very angry," she said, claiming she called the superintendent of West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Friday morning to inquire about the assignment. 
The school district issued a press release late Monday saying students were "required to take a political spectrum quiz, which is not a quiz in the traditional sense with right or wrong answers; instead, the quiz asks survey questions. The answers to the questions place students on the political spectrum. While the survey is completed online, no personal information is entered, including name, login, and student number."
The district also said the spectrum quiz would not be used again in the future.
The assignment, which was first reported on by the conservative education blog EAGnews.org, was not meant to survey students' political beliefs. The bottom portion of the quiz, however, instructed students to visit a website – gotoquiz.com – to "find out where they stood on the political spectrum," the woman said.

A psychiatrist’s view: Why would Brian Williams make up stories?

NBC anchor Brian Williams is really under fire now -- for seemingly making up details or whole story elements about, among other things, coming under enemy fire by Hezbollah, being in a helicopter hit by enemy fire in Iraq, rescuing puppies while working as a volunteer firefighter and reporting from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  
Williams is a talented man.  He has one of the most coveted positions in all of journalism. Whether he was in a chopper that was actually hit by enemy fire, or close to one hit by enemy fire, or simply in the same general vicinity as one hit by enemy fire, he had gone into a war zone to report on a bloody conflict. Whether he rescued one or two puppies from a blaze, or simply volunteered to help put out a blaze, he was doing something commendable. Whether gangs attacked the French Quarter hotel he was staying in or there was simply chaos in the streets -- streets he had elected to walk -- he was putting himself in harm’s way.  
I have never evaluated Brian Williams, but this question could be asked:  Why wasn’t the truth about each of the stories that Williams seems to have embellished enough?  What leads a man to make him look even more courageous than the courage he displayed?  What leads a man to cast himself as the leading man in dramas that course through even greater dangers than the very real perils that unfolded?
One potential answer is that some people must do everything they can to camouflage deep feelings of weakness and unworthiness.  If you were a bullied kid who suspects himself of cowardice, or an abused kid who suspects himself of being unlovable, or a short or asthmatic kid who suspects himself of being weak, and if you never deal with those underlying fears, then you can end up trying to camouflage them with one tall tale after another.  
People very often cast themselves as one thing to avoid being seen as the opposite.
Casting oneself as heroic and powerful and fearless, when it is done to stave off buried feelings of being vulnerable and frightened, is no different than using any other drug. A person can become just as addicted to praise and the admiration in someone’s eyes as he can to cocaine or heroin.  
I know this is hard to believe, but it is true.  And just like any other drug of abuse, mainlining the ill-gotten respect of others is never enough to really quell the internal sadness and anxiety a damaged person carries inside.  You need more and more praise, however you can get it, to keep the negative feelings at bay.
And if praise and attention and awe are your drugs (rather than a nice byproduct of your work) as an anchorman, then being in front of the camera reading the headlines may not be enough.  You might chase the camera everywhere you can, as Williams seems to have done -- to one talk show, after another, to one celebrity cameo, after another.
Telling tall tales isn’t a skill that you’re born with, or that you develop at age 50.  It’s acquired.  And that’s why it is important for anyone addicted to that drug to figure out when he first mainlined it.  
What was it used to cover up?  If you had an alcoholic father who beat you (and I am not implying in the least that this or any other example I generate describes Mr. Williams), and you want to believe he was a good father, then you could be off to the races, as a confabulator.  If you had a sister who confronted a deadly illness as a child, and your family wanted you to believe it was the flu that kept coming back, then you could be on your way to being expert at generating cover-ups.
The truth always wins. Ask anyone who uses any drug to try to distance himself from any reality. It never, ever works. And so, now, Mr. Williams would be wise to do the work of uncovering just why the real facts of his very real willingness to be in harm’s way just weren’t gritty enough.  
The real admiration of colleagues for his real skills just wasn’t flattering enough.  The real success he enjoyed at the top of his profession just wasn’t rich enough.
The psyche or God or one’s self (maybe all the same thing) has a way of bringing you to your knees in an instant, and making you confront the very things you have been running from. Brian Williams may find himself at that very moment.  
And, as strange as it sounds, and as painful as it could be, it could be a transformational one.

After 54 years, mountaineers find wreckage of plane crash that killed soccer stars

The discovery of twisted pieces of aircraft fuselage high in the Chilean Andes has apparently ended a 54-year aviation and sporting mystery.
Mountaineers say that they have found the wreckage of a plane that crashed more than half a century ago, killing 24 people, including eight members of the Green Cross soccer team from Chile's top division.
The tragedy occurred 11 years before members of a Uruguayan rugby team travelling to a game were famously left stranded for more than two months after their plane crashed in Argentina’s high Andes. 
The Green Cross crash occurred on April 3 1961 when a Douglas DC-3 carrying members of the team went missing, sending shockwaves through the world of sport. The soccer players were returning to Santiago after playing a Copa de Chile game in the southern Chilean city of Osorno. Argentine soccer star Eliseo Mouriño, a Copa America winner with Argentina in 1955 and 1959, and a member of his country’s 1958 World Cup squad, was among the victims.
The U.K.’s Mirror newspaper reports that three referees also lost their lives in the crash. Other members of the team and its staff travelled back to Santiago on a separate flight, which was scheduled to make several stops. Most of the Green Cross first team, however, opted to take the fateful direct flight to Santiago.
The wreckage was found at an altitude of 10,500 feet about 215 miles south of Chile’s capital, Santiago. "It was a breathtaking moment and we felt all kinds of sensations. One could feel the energy of the place and breathe the pain," said expedition member Leonardo Albornoz.
Albornoz told Chile's Channel 7 that the exact site is being kept secret to prevent looting.
The expedition found scattered debris and bones, and could see much of the plane’s fuselage without having to dig it out. The wreckage was not where official publications indicated that it would be, according to the mountaineers.
After drawing 1-1 in Osorno, Green Cross bravely completed the second game of its domestic cup tie against Osorno Selección, losing 1-0. The 1961 Cope de Chile was named “Copa de Chile Green Cross” in the team’s honor.
Green Cross ended the season 12^th out of 14 teams in Chile's Primera Division, but were relegated the following season after finishing bottom of the division. The team returned to Chile’s top division in 1964. The following year, however, Green Cross merged with Deportes Temuco to become Green Cross Temuco.
The crash came just three years after the Munich air disaster that killed 23 people, including eight players and three staff members from English soccer powerhouse Manchester United. In 1949 31 people, including the entire Torino soccer team, died when their plane crashed into the retaining wall of the Basilica of Superga in Turin, Italy.

Republicans claim payout from big-bank settlements being steered toward 'special interests'

House Republicans are accusing the Obama administration of letting millions of dollars from recent mortgage-lending settlements go toward politically favored advocacy groups, in turn "shortchanging" the people originally harmed by the financial crisis.
The separate deals were reached with the Justice Department in summer 2014, with Citigroup agreeing to pay $7 billion for misleading investors over mortgage-backed securities and Bank of America paying $16.65 billion for similar actions.
But of the $24 billion, roughly $150 million is tabbed for financial-counseling agencies -- a category that includes liberal-leaning groups such as the National Council of La Raza.
While some Americans likely will need help figuring out how to recover money through the settlement -- help these organizations could give -- Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are questioning why certain activist groups are on the Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved list.
“The Obama administration is shortchanging victims by using these settlements to send money to their pet projects rather than allowing it to go to directly to the people who were harmed in the first place,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told FoxNews.com on Monday.“Furthermore, the administration is also abusing the separation of powers by using these cases to funnel money to their preferred special interests in an attempt to do an end run around Congress, which the Constitution grants the power of the purse.”
Goodlatte pointed specifically to groups such as La Raza and NeighborWorks America -- a network of community development organizations that his office compared to the defunct, controversial low-income advocacy group ACORN.(ACORN disbanded in 2010 after losing government funding amid a controversy over misconduct captured in hidden-camera videos. NeighborWorks is not affiliated and has declined to even work with groups that are.)
Goodlatte said the settlement deal also could result in banks having to pay an additional half-billion dollars to the “controversial activist groups.” A House Judiciary subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday on the matter.
Concerns about the HUD-approved groups have been raised since at least 2012, when the agency announced the release of $42 million for mortgage counseling, with groups like La Raza and the National Urban League being eligible service providers.
The Urban League received $1 million and La Raza received roughly $1.7 million from HUD, according to the conservative website WesternJournalism.com.
La Raza supports administration-backed, comprehensive immigration-reform legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants and President Obama's recent executive actions that suspended deportation for millions.
La Raza’s nonprofit 501(c)4 group, the NCLR Action Fund, spent $147,521 exclusively on Democratic candidates during the 2014 election cycle.
Group spokeswoman Lisa Nauarrete said Monday that La Raza, though, has been an approved counselor since the first Bush administration and has yet to "receive a dime" of settlement money.
"The argument seems terribly speculative to us," she said. "And the amount is less than 1 percent [of the settlement]. That's a minuscule part."
Goodlatte and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, have been pursuing issues related to the settlements since last year, including sending a letter in November to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting additional information about the “questionable terms” of the deal.
The Justice Department did not return a request Monday for comment on the eligible groups and the deal itself.
Documents provided to FoxNews.com by HUD show hundreds of national and local housing-counseling groups are approved by the agency for settlement money.
A La Raza affiliate was listed in at least five states and the District of Columbia. A NeighborWorks group was listed in five states, and a National Urban League group was listed in nine.
Goodlatte and Hensarling also have raised concerns about the incentive structure in the settlements with Citigroup and Bank of America, which were preceded by a similar one in 2013 with JP Morgan for $13 billion. They argue the deals have an incentive clause in which banks earn $2 worth of credit for every dollar donated to the groups above a certain threshold, compared with a dollar-for-dollar credit for government-mandated consumer relief.
“This makes donations to activist groups far more attractive to banks than providing relief to injured consumers,” Goodlatte and Hensarling said in their 2014 letter to Holder. “As a result, the settlement appears to serve as a vehicle for funding activist groups rather than as a means of securing relief for consumers actually harmed.”

Just as Bad Cartoon

Carson getting 'personnel, rationale' in place for possible 2016 White House run

Dr. Ben Carson acknowledged Sunday that he is building a campaign team for a potential 2016 presidential run and indicated he will make a formal announcement by May.
“We’re making sure all the infrastructure is in place -- personnel and rationale,” said Carson, a conservative favorite expected to run in the Republican primary. “We’re putting all of that together.”
Carson indicated on “Fox News Sunday” that he will, in the next couple of weeks, announce an exploratory committee toward a White House bid and that he would make public in May whether we will formally enter the race.
The 63-year-old Carson continues to do well in early polling.

“We’re making sure all the infrastructure is in place . . ."- Dr. Ben Carson

He finished tied for fifth in a Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm New Hampshire Poll for potential GOP candidates released Sunday.
He finished behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Carson tied with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Carson criticized President Obama’s plan to provide free community college education to Americans. He said existing Pell Grants already help students from low-income families receive a higher education. And he offered advice for those who don’t qualify for assistance.
“W-o-r-k,” he said, arguing that government is not responsible for providing everything to it citizens, including those in low- and middle-income families.
"We don't have to give away everything," Carson said. "That was never the intention. The government is not there to give away everything and to take care of people. It is to facilitate our ability to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's it."
Carson also weighed in on the recent debate about immunization and the measles outbreak that has divided the potential 2016 GOP White House field. He said parents should immunize their children.
Carson said many parents who don’t immunize are the victims of old misinformation and suggested the public health community hasn’t done a good enough job of getting out the correct information, which is that the obvious upsides outweigh the potential downsides, such as allergic reactions.
However, he argued the issue shouldn’t be partisan.
“It’s not a Republican or Democratic issue,” Carson told Fox News.
Days earlier, Paul suggested parents should have their children immunize but also argued that "the state doesn’t own the children.”

Kerry opens door to 2016 White House bid, but just slightly

Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he has not ruled out a 2016 White House bid, which would put him in a wide-open Democrat primary field behind front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Kerry, the party’s presidential nominee in 2004, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “nobody ever says never.”
However, he said he could think of “no scenario whatsoever” in which he would start such a campaign.
“I haven't thought about it. And I'm, as you can tell, pretty busy," Kerry said from Germany, where he is participating in the Munich Security Conference.
To be sure, as the country’s top diplomat, Kerry has been busy traveling around the world to help resolve an array on international crisis and situations, including the battle against Islamic extremist groups, the Iran nuclear deal, a potential Israel-Palestinian peace agreement and Ukraine’s battle against Russian-backed separatists.  
Among those being mentioned as potential Democratic primary challengers to Clinton, a former secretary of State and 2008 White House candidate, are former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Joe Biden, who ran for president in 1988 and 2008.
Clinton has not declared a candidacy.
Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator, has previously suggested that his current job is his last in politics.

Kerry says US ‘on the road’ to defeating ISIS, amid claims terror group is spreading

Secretary of State John Kerry and a top White House official claimed Sunday that the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State is working – despite warnings from other corners of the Obama administration that the terror network is in fact spreading.
Following the purported deaths last week of two ISIS hostages and concerns about the U.S. needing to do more, Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S.-led coalition was "on the road" to defeating the Islamic extremist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Iraq and Syria.
He argued that coalition forces have recaptured 22 percent of the populated areas that ISIS once held in the region “without launching what we would call a major offensive."
The claim came just days after Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, delivered a grim assessment of the group’s evolution in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. He described how the group was surfacing in North Africa.
"With affiliates in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, the group is beginning to assemble a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and under governed areas,” Stewart testified.
Defense secretary nominee Ashton Carter, who had his confirmation hearing Wednesday, also told Congress this past week he is aware of reports that ISIS may try to expand into Afghanistan.
Still, retired Gen. John Allen, the White House special envoy on the Islamic State, told ABC’s “This Week” that the United States has accomplished its goal of devising a “comprehensive plan” and striking a “hard blow.”
“I believe they have actually,” said Allen, pointing to the northern Syria town of Kobani. Kurdish troops took control of the town several days ago after hundreds of coalition airstrikes on ISIS positions.
Kerry and Allen got some support for their argument from Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh.  
Judeh told ABC later in the show that ISIS is “on the run,” but that certain victory “will not be quick.”
“They are not gone yet,” he said. “The air campaign has degraded their capabilities on the ground. They still control territories. They still have access to Syria’s cash and funds and sophisticated weaponry… . But there is no doubt we shall prevail.”  
Allen and Judeh’s positive analysis was preceded Sunday by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, who says the United States’ overarching strategy for combating Islamic extremist groups is not working.
“The counterterrorism component works just fine to go after the high-value targets and key leaders,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “But we need a much broader strategy that recognizes that we’re facing not just this tactical problem of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. … I think what I’m saying is the strategy that we have is not working, and it’s clearly not working.”
He estimated the size of the enemy has doubled in the past 10 years and pointed to such hotspots as middle-central Asia, northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. 
However, Flynn also made clear the responsibility to craft a comprehensive plan goes beyond the White House to Congress.
Flynn made his remarks as Congress prepares this week to consider whether to give Obama the authorization to use military force against Islamic State.
Some critics of the current administration plan -- essentially airstrikes in Iraq and Syria with U.S. troops helping train local militias -- want to send American combat troops into the region.
However, the so-called “boots on the ground” strategy appears unpopular for war-weary Americans.
And on Sunday, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, a potential 2016 White House candidate and ardent Obama administration critic, voiced opposition to sending U.S. troops overseas.
“I don’t believe right now we need American boots on the ground. And the reason is, we have boots on the ground already, with the Kurds,” he told ABC.
However, he also argued the U.S. needs to supply them with more weapons.