Via Christopher Fountain's site For What It's Worth, I hooked into a beautiful photography site featuring the work of Brian Skinner. The picture that drew me into looking at the rest of his work...
and then I fell in love with one of his Cloister pictures, one of my favorite places in NYC...
and, of course, there is a picture of the George Washington Bridge, a landmark I love but avoid driving-wise at all cost ~
I usually see the GW during the day when it looks just as good, or better, with its size and height, and the huge American flag that drapes off the top. I love the GW.
The freeze applies to all Executive Branch workers -- including civilian employees of the Defense Department, but does not apply to military personnel, government contractors, postal workers, members of Congress, Congressional staffers, or federal court judges and workers.
Huh? Am I missing something? Postal workers and members of Congress get a pass? It seems to me, with the exception of the military, everyone working for the government should be on the receiving end of a pay freeze. What's the argument against it?
And, way more importantly, there should be a 100% freeze on hiring new government workers.
It's not just the cost of a ton of additional government salaries that hurts. It's the addition of an equal number of new benefits plans ~ generous beyond the imagination compared to what most people working in the private sector enjoy.
Certainly I don't need to replay SNL's skit about public service workers, too cruel for school, but President Obama's disingenuous political play today deserves a big dose of reality:
Stuttering, also called disfluency in speech therapy, is very painful both to the speaker and to those waiting to hear what he has to say. I know this from personal experience as one of our children stuttered from a young age until, after innovative and intense therapy, he is now able to speak with virtually no sign of disfluency.
Based on our own experience, I don't know if I'll go see the new film The King's Speech, which had a limited opening last Friday. It follows the story of King George VI, who stuttered throughout most of his life, as he tries to overcome his difficulties with the help of his speech therapist, Lionel Logue. Might be just too difficult to watch, at least for me, but it sounds interesting.
I ran across this short and sweet post from Commentary Magazine while I was looking through the papers this morning ~ is it really 'looking through the papers' when it is done via a series of clicks? (Answer: yes it is but way better.) The post addresses the busted Social Security system under the headline: I'm Crazy Ponzi-Man, Now Gimme That Money. As it works on the internet, this post is in response to a letter to the New YorkTimes written in response to an article about, um, yeah, the financial difficulties the Social Security system faces in the future based on the annual report released by its trustees. I know, TMI.
It's laughable to me, though, that the failure of the system is still under discussion. It's not old news, it's ANCIENT news. Decades ago it was obvious, and discussed by outliers, that the Social Security trust fund was headed towards inanition, and now of course, is beyond it.
The Cato Institute, former outlier, now mainstream for those who want to reduce the size and reach of government, has been contrasting our Social Security system with the Chilean AFP system since before it was established in 1980, offering immeasurable support to Jose Pinera, who implemented the new system.
Inside-the-beltway types call Social Security the third rail of politics. Certainly it was for Sharon what-was-her-name-again? in Nevada. The Dems started using their mantra Oh my God, the Republicans are going to privatize Social Security!! before the 2010 elections and will continue to sputter it as long as they believe it will frighten people away from considering the reality of what we face, and how we might be able to rein the system back into usefulness.
Here is one man's response to the deceitful rants from the Left:
It's in everyone's interest to understand our current Social Security system and why it long ago passed the line of sustainability, and what privatizing Social Security really means. Ya-da, ya-da, ya-da, of course the Cato Institute provides plenty of information for anyone who wants to educate themselves for the (hopefully) soon-to-be political storm.
Walter Williams gives a short tutorial on the social Security system, less screaming but with as much impact:
Social Security, along with Medicare, has long been the so-called elephant in the room. Everyone sees it but no one mentions it. Will the newly-elected Republicans Representatives, along with their born-again small government Republican friends waiting for them in Washington, be willing to take on the third rail?
In the ongoing effort by commerce to push the Nanny State's buttons, a new product has been perfectly designed to drive those who want to control what we all digest a little more nuts. Alcohol-infused whipped cream. Does it get any better?
Sir Ken Robinson, a well-known speaker on changing the model of education to allow more creative thinking, has a cool video describing the history of the current educational model, and how it has to change.
Sir Robinson also discusses the nastiness of tracking students, limiting their choices, and the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses. I have to do a little more reading to fully understand what Sir Robinson proposes, but it sounds to me like it might be a good model for critical thinking ~ something most traditional education models lack.
Hmmm, do I keep the farmers who have enjoyed this perk for God knows how long for no good reason (environmental or otherwise) happy ~ or do I make good on what I said right after the election...we have to pull back the size and power of the government? Crap. I know I put those balls somewhere.
EVEN Al Gore thinks the subsidies should end. And he gives away the real reason why he supported them in the first place.
He linked his own support for the original program to his presidential ambitions.
“One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”
The same old, same old ~ meaningless government program to buy votes to gain more power to start more government programs to buy more votes to gain more power to start more government programs...Lordy, it never ends.
Aside from the cost ethanol adds to each gallon of gas we buy, the EPA has decided to increase the percentage of ethanol blended with gas, from 10% to 15%, which will throw auto manufacturers into a tizzy because engines aren't designed for that level of the additive. An increase of ethanol will drive mechanics (and the AAA) insane. Any environmental benefits are unfounded, as even Mr. Gore concedes.
So, how about it, all you born-again small government types? Or will you revert to your old children-of-the-corn ways?
Last Friday I spent the morning at Amistad Academy and Elm City Elementary, both part of the Achievement First Charter School system and both located in New Haven, CT. While I waited for the opening presentation to begin I was approached by an 8th grader who proceeded, in answer to my many questions, to lay out her plans for the next eight years, which included graduating from MIT.
And that is the whole purpose of Achievement First: to put into place what each student needs in order to graduate from college. The staff is very clear on that goal ~ it's not to position the students to gain acceptance to good colleges but to instill in them that the only goal is to graduate from the college of their choice, a very important distinction.
After the presentation we were allowed to visit classrooms, first in the middle school and then in the nearby elementary school. At first, from this old Montessori teacher and John Holt-style homeschooler's perspective, the classes seemed very regimented. But it took almost no time at all to see the engagement and enthusiasm of the students. In response to questions from the teacher, hands shot up and bodies wiggled with the hope they would be called on to offer their opinion ~ and this was in the middle school, a time when children are supposed to be too cool for school, especially in inner cities schools.
I realized the structure, made up of what seems like a minutia of rules for everything from always sitting straight up in their chairs to looking directly at whichever child was speaking in class, is making up for an inner city culture that doesn't ask much of its children. Doesn't sound like much, but I understood that the students needed the most basic level of training in order to feel comfortable and be successful in the world of college and beyond. It takes rigor, joy and sweating the small stuff.
Take a look...
Achievement First is educating around 5000 students spread between New York City and Connecticut, from elementary through high school graduation. Every one of those students has the same goal: to graduate from college, and the system put into place by the Achievement First schools is showing huge success towards that goal. The results are amazing.
Unfortunately for Connecticut, Achievement First will not be opening any more schools in the state. The teachers unions, using the power of state government alliances, has made it too difficult for Achievement First to continue moving forward in the state, even though there is a high need in Connecticut for those schools. Well known for being a wealthy state, in fact, Connecticut has the widest achievement gap between low-income students and their better-off peers ~ 50th in the United State.
Connecticut, not thought of as a state with inner city problems, has plenty, including a heartbreaking need for effective schools. Other successful charter school concerns, including Kipp schools, keep clear of Connecticut for the same reasons. Changing the status quo to make for a friendlier environment for charter schools will take courage and hard work. Hooking up with Conncan or Connecticut Commission on Education Achievement is a good way to start.
We should all be putting the energy these kids have into fixing this.
According to a study by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, ALL the deciduous trees in the Western world are suffering from a disease caused by...Wi-Fi networks. Bummer.
While the posts at Stop Shouting! (see earlier post) are few and far between, they are worth checking out. The bloggett happened to be in DC on the day of the Stewart/Colbert rally and wrote about the experience. Aside from the rudeness and piles of trash, she enjoyed an interesting and telling conversation with some of the young attendees. My pull quotes:
Many of these young people worked for "non profit advocacy groups" and it was clear although they idealistically liked the "Mission statement" of their organization, they were becoming frustrated that no real results/meaningful change in their clients lives were being seen. We chatted about that, and I discussed some of the meaningful, privately funded, small-scale, local projects that I had worked on in the past, and had made positive impact in the lives of those who chose to take advantage of that. As I stated, "Change only comes if and when your clients are committed to change. You can throw as much money and support at it as you want, but unless THEY choose to change the direction of their lives, it will never happen".
They agreed that this was what they were seeing in their own "advocacy" work.
And
We also talked specifically about Obama, the "community organizer" and their disappointment with the "Hope and Change" agenda. I then asked them a question -- you voted to elect someone to the highest office in the land, to lead us out of this huge financial and moral morass we are in. We needed the best the country had to offer. Obama stated his experience as a "community organizer" in the south side of Chicago, and worked there for several years. How are the residents there doing now?
Absolute silence. I could see they were thinking. Deeply.
Well, maybe not everyone.
The young rally-attendees were urged to do their own homework on the issues of the day, rather than depending on media soundbites. Suggested resources included hillbuzz (a Clinton Dem turned right by the way Barrack Obama won the election), the Ludwig von Mises Institute and, one I hadn't heard of but looks amazing, Shadow Government Statistics.
It would be a miracle of major since-the-beginning-of-time proportions if 18 to 30 year olds, raised on a diet of unquestioning fear and guilt, actually did the uncool thing and questioned the uninterrupted onslaught of government-will-fix-everything sibilation. And it is uncool, requiring a special courage.
As it became clear towards the end of summer, 2008, that Barrack Obama was both a true statist and headed towards winning the election, I started to really support him. I felt it was time to 'take it all the way' with leftist policies rather than the 'death by a thousand cuts' baby steps towards the same end if John McCain won the election. I had faith that there would be push-back if President Obama carried out his campaign promises. A couple of days after the 2008 election I wrote this hopeful email of hope to a few close friends:
It's the Dawn of a New America & I'm viewing the future as potentially a huge opportunity, the best in years given Bush's support of soft Socialism & Clinton's 'centralist' governing, to motivate more people to act out against what a lot of us are assuming will be a more radical move to far left policies.
"Acting out?" Yup. And this morning I came across a surperb and appropiately emotional recounting of the evolution of the Tea Party via instapundit, addressed to those who so viciously attacked Tea Party supporters. While you may not agree with everything, the author gets it right. My favorite pull quotes:
Except, that to emplace your policies and “vision” requires the consent of the people. You can not hire enough guards, build enough prisons, operate enough courts to entrap and control the whole population of these (for-now) united states. It only takes a small percentage of dissenters, non-conformists and cascading acts of strategic civil disobedience to bring your entire command-and-control crashing all around you. Decapitating by legal and tax retributive means, a few titular heads of the resistance, will only serve to strengthen and embolden the diffuse movement. Look back at how the Solidarity movement was organized and how it ultimately prevailed before you declare Victory.
Your side has chosen to engage in a low-level, asymmetric campaign for decades. Deceit, dishonesty and exploiting the mechanisms of state have been your weapons.
Unfortunately for you, you can no longer hide and your methods have been revealed and exposed for what they are.
And
You were jubilant November, 2008. You strutted, you crowed, you reveled.
Except for one thing. You misunderstood the battlespace. You failed to recognize the numbers who stayed home rather than vote for a progressive RINO like McCain. You misread the temperment of the people, who wanted an end to the theft, the lies, the spending, the corruption and the deceit. Instead, you doubled down.
The people went underground. Everyday work folk, alarmed at the rising tide of tyranny and the rhetoric of hate, weary of the false accusations and the lies, joined the libertarian and conservatives and forged an underground resistance. The town halls in that raucous summer were not an aberration – they are the new norm. Get used to it.
Word spread – from uncensored blogs, to private e-mails and forwarded commentary, meet-ups large and small, the resistance grew and strengthened. There were gatherings of the clans across the nation. The movement began to grown organically, a leadership structure evolved, and a long term plan developed.
She gets it exactly right, especially in tone, although I have a feeling this declaration of intent will still outclass the discussion coming from the other side.
First up was the latest Robin Hood with Russell Crowe.
Any film that begins with the words,
In times of tyranny and injustice
when law oppresses the people,
the outlaw takes his place in history...
is going to be good, and Robin Hood is good. Maid Marion is the original Sarah Palin but with a better accent. Paying high taxes to support foreign wars, her farm failing, Marion stands up to the swarmy Sheriff of Nottingham without fear, more than ready to head to the nearest Tea Party rally. High point: when Robin Hood is almost rewarded for returning the fallen King Richard's crown to the Queen, the reward is snatched back because his father owes back taxes. A little too much mumbling by RH, but the movie hits all the right points.
Then it was a bit of Idiocracy, one of the all time most important movies ever made. If we're not careful, this is our future.
Netflix has a great selection of documentarys; I have a ton of them lined up for my Wii. I finally watched Michael Moore Hates America, premiering back in 2004. Taking off on Moore's film Roger and Me, film maker Mike Wilson interviews several of the people from that film who were used, according to them, by Moore to back up his agenda while, throughout the movie, he unsuccessfully tries to set up an interview with Moore. It plays out as expected but does a good job exposing Michael Moore's hypocrisy and dishonesty. High point: after a confrontation between Wilson and Moore in front of a large audience, Moore's supporters tell Wilson Moore didn't address his questions and should have done so.
Street Fighter, the story of Cory Booker's campaign for the office of Mayor of Newark, NJ in 2002 is excellent but tough to watch, just as good as Robin Hood with its battle of good vs. evil. Uber dirty politics, a good lesson for anyone considering running for office. Low point: watching what the opposition pulled during the final two days of the campaign. Cory Booker is someone to watch as he battles to end the ingrained cycle of failure in Newark. He has partnered with now NJ Governor Chris Christy over the years to bring sanity to Newark, and is now at the head of a huge effort to reform the Newark public schools, helped by a $1,000,000 donation from Facebook's Mark Zukerberg.
And finally, Who is Harry Nilsson (and Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him?), the little known story of a great musician. I loved Harry Nilsson's music. Still do, in fact. He had a wonderful voice and had an equally wonderful way with words. High point: the music.
I wonder why? Maybe it's because the bar for their job performance is often much lower than it is for those of us who work in the private sector. Ya think?
NYC Transit supervisors falsified thousands of vital signal inspections across the subway system for years, leaving straphangers at risk for deadly collisions like the one that killed nine people in Washington, DC...
Signal maintainers would routinely enter false inspections into their logbooks, which managers used to write reports. In some cases, managers would write a bogus report even if a worker refused to enter the fudged data in his book...
Workers who didn't comply lost overtime privileges or got sent to the dirtiest, most leak-infested tunnels, sources said.
And that, of course, does not include the largest perk of all, the huge pensions that are pushing budget deficits at all levels of government into bankruptcy. Stories like this are common ~ from both the media and the personal stories of pretty much anyone who has had to get something done through a government agency. No wonder government workers are often viewed with contempt, even by Saturday Night Live:
T&A holds all the cards, 50,000 of them. Can you imagine the romancing - and the $$$ - the 50,000 member T&A will enjoy from the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union? Controlling an additional 50,000 members, along with their 50,000 dues, is a wonderful thing and well worth any amount of candy and flowers.
It's just what we need, adding more members to public employee unions with out-of-control pensions and protections.
It's back to the old career politicians-special interests (public employees)-buying votes ~ same old, same old.
This pull quote from Harvard's Phillip Greenspun's book review of While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis offers a short history of how public employee unions came into being and the devastating effect they are having on state and federal budgets, and our tax bills:
...in 1958 when an aide to New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. suggested that city workers could be a large enough voting bloc to ensure his reelection. Wager signed an executive order authorizing city workers, notably those of the transit system, to unionize and bargain collectively...
Read this out loud twice:
Once a sufficiently high percentage of voters are unionized public employees, there is essentially no limit to the obligations imposed on the state. Because it would cause too much backlash from non-union non-government employed voters, most of the money extracted from taxpayers will be taken in the form of long-term health care and pension promises. A voter working at Walmart gets upset hearing that a bus driver is earning $130,000 per year. If instead the bus driver is paid $70,000 per year and able to retire at age 41 (MBTA here in Boston), it is tougher for a voter to figure out how much is being spent. Pushing most of the spending out 10-50 years gives the politicians who agreed to the obligations at least 10 years in which to move to the next level of government before the true cost of the agreement becomes apparent.
Get it? Once the number of public employees passes the tipping point ~ the number needed to elect the politicians who will, in turn, reward those votes with ever more generous benefits and pensions ~ the cost of public employees can only grow larger, at least until someone steps in and says enough is enough.
I hate lemonade and never stop at sidewalk lemonade stands, no matter how cute the kids are, although plenty of people, far more generous than I am, do. I should make clear that I admire their budding entrepreneur spirit and, if they're selling cookies, I'm in. If you like that sort of thing, buying home-baked cookies or lemonade from kids on the street, get this.
Last week a couple of 13-year-old boys, Andrew and Kevin, met with great success, to the tune of $120, selling home-made sweets in a New Castle, New York park. Deciding to build on their initial gain, they expanded their menu to include Gatorade and water for the second day of business. Unfortunately, a man named Michael Wolfensohn happened to pass by....
He quickly pulled out his cell phone and called the cops to report the reprobates for operating their cookie stand without a license. The police soon arrived and shut down the dangerous baked goods operation. "All vendors selling on town property have to have a license, whether it's boys selling baked goods or a hot dog vendor," Wolfensohn said proudly afterward...
Thank you, Mr. Wolfensohn, for teaching those boys a lesson! The next time Andrew and Kevin decide to sell frigging anything in the park, they will take out the necessary permit that requires a $1,000,000 certificate of insurance and, way better for the town coffers, pay the fee of $150 for every two hours they are in business.
It won't be long before only virtual reality kids will be able to sell lemonade.
But, and that's a big but, lemonade stands aren't the only small businesses that have to pay a lot of money to various levels of government before they can even earn their first $1 ~ for no particular reason other than to enrich and grow the government.
Businesses are often successful because they are providing a very narrowly defined product or service. Intricate African-style braiding is one of those services. Braiding salons began to popping up in inner city neighborhoods a few years ago and now, of course, they have attracted the attention of government regulators and special interests, in this case, the cosmetic art profession.
The Cato Institute makes an interesting point about what Chris Edwards calls political entrepreneurship, those in business who both grow and protect their companies with government money and not-to-be-admired relationships.
Mark Steyn, the endlessly entertaining Canadian conservative, sub-hosted for Rush Thursday and Friday and offered his hilarious with underlying seriousness take on T&A groping...
including a call for mass civil disobediance at airports over the Thanksgiving holiday. He writes about it in National Review as well, including
Who in the upper echelon of the TSA assumed people would put up with this? There are alternatives that make a lot more sense, first by taking a look at how Israel handles airport security:
Robert Poole, of the Reason Foundation, weighs in as well in The Daily Beast. Seems pretty rational. My pull quote:
Rep. John Mica (R-FL) was the Aviation Subcommittee chairman back in 2001 and voted to create the TSA, like nearly every other member of Congress not named Ron Paul. But Mica also wisely created a provision that allowed airports to opt-out of the TSA and use private screeners instead. He is strongly encouraging airports to opt-out of the TSA now.
I'm doing something very exciting (at least to me) tomorrow morning ~ attending an open house at Amistad Academy in New Haven. Amistad Academy was started in 1999 by people who believed that urban kids could reach the same academic achievement as the kids who enjoyed the stability and opportunity of suburban schools, if given the right structure. The founders of Amistad Academy, after finding success with the system they had put in place at the Academy, created Achievement First, a non-profit organization given that task of starting new schools based on the Amistad Academy model.
I'm very interested to observe how the classes feel energy-wise, and how the teachers interact with the students. I hope it's wonderful.
Our son Will's friend Gordie, and Gordie's girlfriend Dakota, are having a very excellent adventure in SE Asia. I've been following their very excellent blog
Now the serious romancing begins. Special interests are descending on the new Congress (and the always reliable returning career politicians) like love-starved sexual predators, or at the very least, TSA employees, to get the cycle of pay-off-for-special-treatment in place in time for the swearing-in ceremonies in January.
But, to mix a couple of metaphors, the new Congress will have to turn the other cheek and Just Say No to this torrent of charm. Their task now is to turn their campaign rhetoric into serious action ~ to pull back the size and reach of the Federal government.
David Boaz, as usual, boils down what seems like an overwhelming task into a comprehensive guide for Washington neopyhtes to help them avoid the hugs and get their work started.
Among other suggestions, Boaz advises to stay away from social issues and stick to our fiscal problems. Social interests did not play a role in the 2010 election in any significant way. A survey conducted on by a conservative website backs that up. Given that it's probable the majority of people who responded to this poll are conservative, and keeping in mind that conservatives are supposedly obsessed with social issues, the results may surprise you. As a libertarian, I like the third question best ~ 72% of the respondents would accept a more socially liberal culture if that was the result of fiscal conservatism. Cool.
The results of a recent Rasmussen poll are another sign that voters don't much care for government intervention, in this case, with children's nutrition. While 82% of those polled oppose the new ordinance passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors banning the inclusion of toys in certain fast food kid meals, only
Here is Brian Lamb explaining his most recent experience going through airport security.
This is a better picture of Brian Lamb.
Nick Gillespie, for Reason Magazine, had an excellent conversation with Brian Lamb. A couple of my pull-quotes:
reason: Nowadays the scarcity argument—the argument that the government needs to be involved because outlets are scarce—applies more to newspapers, since every city in America has far more cable news outlets and TV broadcast outlets than it has newspapers. Do you think it’s a good idea for the government to get involved in this area, whether it’s by helping nonprofits form or by subsidizing print outlets?
Lamb: For 31 years I’ve been associated with an organization that has spent a billion dollars totally from business, not from government. There’s not a dime from tax money in here. As a matter of fact, if it ever got to that I’d leave. I think the mixing of tax money and the media is a very, very bad idea. With the money comes the nudge, the power, the suggestion. It’s bad enough when you pay for it yourself. It would be far worse if taxpayer money went into these media organizations. I don’t think the government has any role to play at all.
and...
reason: Do you worry that the Fairness Doctrine might be revived and that it might be applied to cable, the content of which historically has not been regulated? Or that the FCC will say that since cable is where the action is we should be regulating it now?
Lamb: I worry about anybody in government thinking they can regulate speech, regulate channels, regulate content...
QE2 is the latest move by the Feds to turn around the economy. QE2, on the face of it, seems rather complicated, certainly for a simple person like me. What follows is a very good explaination of what it is, how it is supposed to work and who came up with this bright idea. Stick with it and pay particular attention to the Goldman Sachs references.
The next video is a short piece showing how the Feds want us to view QE2.
C-SPAN is the single greatest resource we have for serious discussions on issues and for insight on elected officials and the wheels of government. C-SPAN may also be the only entity in Washington that believes in transparency as something more than just a soundbite, transparency being one of the most overused and least acted upon words by the political class over the last two years.
Now C-SPAN has asked, in a letter to soon-to-be House speaker John Boehner, for permission to increase the number of cameras in the House chamber, allowing for more "reaction shots" of House members. C-SPAN also...
cited a letter that Boehner himself once sent to C-SPAN, in which he supported the network’s request to televise healthcare negotiations. In that letter, he stated his own belief that “every issue of national import should be debated by the people’s elected representatives in full public view.” Boehner has yet to respond to the most recent letter from his newfound pen pal, which was delivered last Tuesday. And considering that similar requests from C-SPAN to former Speaker Newt Gingirch and current Speaker Nancy Pelosi have not been approved, history suggests that Boehner’s House will be as transparent as the ones before it.
I don't know about you but I'd give up the Housewives to watch members of Congress sleeping, paging through magazines or, hopefully, blowing a gasket in response to pontificating by a Member from the other side of the aisle.
To, I'm sure, the discomfort of anyone who lacks the courage to face the truth about our public school system, Waiting For Superman, the new documentary about the failure of our schools, is attracting a lot of attention. A lot. Oprah had the filmmaker and cast on for an hour, followed by another hour with Cory Booker (Mayor of Newark), Chris Christie (Governor of NJ), both intent on educational reform, and the founder of facebook, Mark Zukerberg, who has donated $100 million to the Newark public schools. Her website provides seemingly endless information about failing schools, cutting-edge reformers and videos of the two shows. Oprah's embrace of what many believe is THE civil rights issue of our time will reach people who, in the past, either ignored the problems or pretended they didn't exist at all.
But she did vote for Barrack Obama who, after watching Waiting For Superman recentlysaid,
"Oh, it's hearbreaking...And when you see these parents in the film you are reminded that … their stake in their kids, their wanting desperately to make sure their kids are able to succeed, is so powerful…. It’s obviously difficult to watch to see these kids who know that this school’s going to give them a better chance-and that should depend on the bounce of a ball."
Then why, Mr. President, did you, your administration and your party decide to end the D.C. Opportunity Schlarship Program (OSP) in 2009, a program that has saved 3,300 children from one of the worst school systems in the country. Did you not watch this?
On March 16, 2010, the US Senate rejected the bill that would have kept the funding for OSP in place, a year after Education Secretary Arne Duncan revoked scholarships from 216 children who were already enrolled for the 2010-2011 school year.
Please read that again, out loud.
Why? Money, power, unions, money, power, unions...what else? It's more important to keep the unions happy - who, in turn, vote for the politicians, putting their own interests before the children's - and it all pays off because there is always a union contract to be renegotiated, and another election to be won. Nearly all of the votes against reauthorization were from the Democratic side while the majority of the votes supporting the program came from the *Republicans.
* The Republicans, especially career politicians, share plenty of the blame for failed schools ~ unwilling, as they are, to rock the boat. That said, they overwhemingly voted for reauthorization of funding OSP.
A couple of years ago the conservative club at Bucknell held an Affirmative Action bake sale, using race-based pricing that allowed Latino and Black students to pay considerably less than Caucasian and Asian students for cookies and brownies. The reactions of the students buying the goodies varied from disbelief to embarrassment, making the intended point that most people just want equal opportunity and aren't comfortable reaching their goals by slipping in under the fence.
John Stossel, the libertarian journalist who recently moved from ABC News to the Fox Business channel, held his own bake sale last week with similar results. He discusses the issue of Affirmative Action with Bill O'Reilly:
The Wesleyan University admissions office reacted in a similar way after a conservative student group on campus held yet another Affirmative Active bake sale ~ denying that Wesleyan follows an affirmative action policy when deciding which prospective students should be invited to attend the school. I find it interesting that this very elite, by any definition of the word, university felt the need to disavow any proclivity to follow affirmative action, dare I say, standards. The Wesleyan faculty, on the other hand, felt no need to distance the school from affirmative action.
If only the proponents of affirmative action would get serious (and honest) about solving the real civil rights issue of our time ~ the failure of our public school system ~ affirmative action would be beside the point.
