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Public education is the backbone of this country - not the military, not the corporations. Teachers and education would do a hell of a lot better if the damned politicians and editorial critics who've never taught a day in their lives, would get the hell out of the way. (And take "No Child Left Behind" with them).
I don't recall the author of this statement, but he said, ["If a foreign country came in here and fostered on us the educational system that we have, we would declare it another act of war"].
And you can bet that if 9/11 and our attack on Iraq had not happened, our congress would still be too damned lazy to vote and to go into debt for educational funds in the same manner that it has voted funds for fighting in Iraq.
Posted at February 3, 2006 8:17 AM in response to School Frays
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This past Thursday, I received a letter from my state health benefit plan stating that it had not received notice of my signing up for part D of the medicare program. And if I did not by the end of January, my present premiums would increase until I do sign up for a plan.
Supposedly I should have a few more months until a final deadline when all "signers" are supposed to have made a choice. But since I haven't played the game and made a "quick" choice, I will be coerced into choosing a plan under the threat of an increase in my premiums until I do. And there will be "no refunds" for differences in costs if I don't hurry up and select a plan.
Frankly, even with all of the information that is supposedly available for choosing a plan, the program is a mess when trying to do so.
Posted at January 30, 2006 1:21 PM in response to If That's A Death Spiral, What's This?
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There are "well-off", two income families in my college town with refrigerators stocked to the hilt in order to entertain friends and guests; living and maxed out to the hilt. If anything should happen to either income earner, they are done for.
Just no self-discipline - appearances are everything. These do not have my sympathy.
But when a soldier who has been deployed to Iraq loses his/her ability to pay family debts because of Iraq, or some corrporation has shipped its industry out of the country and bankruptcy must be declared, then my government is responsible for their losses.
My government talks a good game about "equal opportuinty", the "American dream", then turns around and pulls the rug out from under the "dreamers".
My government talks a good game about "free interprise", but writes tax laws that are "free innerprise" for special interests.
Posted at January 18, 2006 6:28 AM in response to Needed: Richer Debtors in Bankruptcy
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Has anyone EVER met a politician who DIDN'T have "a plan for education"?
What we are reaping right now is the years and years of neglecting public education in favor of big tax breaks.
No Child Left Behind forces teachers, not to educate, but to "teach for the test" and turn out little parrots.
But even teaching for the test is not going to help anything if the student and/or his parents are not turned on to what's happening.
The best thing that could happen to public education is for politicians and editorial critics to get the hell out of the way.
Posted at January 13, 2006 6:02 PM in response to NCLB's Poison Pill
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"Why didn't they seek authority from Congress to deal with the threat?"
I know this is an honest question, but we're dealing with an administration that makes even Nixon look almost honest.
Conspiracy theory, yes. This thing is so damned big, secret, complex and ongoing that even most career members of Congress don't know what the hell is going on in their own government of which they are supposed to be its leaders!
This spying on Americans IS about establishing thought control of the American people because the American people don't share the ideals of "big business" and don't give a damn about control of the entire planet and "big business" does.
And who is it that controls govenment?, "BIG BUSINESS". The only free speech left in this government is $$$.Posted at December 20, 2005 7:02 PM in response to John McLaughlin Dazed and Confused
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No one who has watched the U.S. government become more and more afraid of its own citizens ever expected that the Total Information Awareness program (espoused by Poindexter, et. al.) was a discarded idea, even after it was declared a dead issue by our own government.
And inspite of the promises and assurances of those elected to political office and those career personnel who work deep within the secret bowels of our government, spying on Americans is now what our government has come to - with or without a legal court order of consent.
But this cannot, and did not happen without members of Congress being participants in it.
Around 1934, a card punch tabulator (Hollerith machine) was in use in Germany, "which made it possible to process vast quantities of data in a relatively sort time."
In a speech opening a new office, the following words were spoken by Willie Heidinger; "We are recording the individucal characteristics of every single member of the nation onto a little card....
"We are proud to be able to contribute to such a task, a task that makes available to the physician of our German body - social [Hitler] the material for his examination, so that our physician can determine whether, from the standpoint of the health of the nation, the results calculated in this manner stand in a harmonious, healthy relation to one another, or whether unhealthy conditions must be cured by corretive interventions....
"We have firm trust in our physician and will follow his orders blindly, because we know that he will lead our nation towards a great future. Heil to our German people and the leader!"
The Total Information Awareness program is up and running in the U.S., and the purpose of the Patriot Act(s) from which Bush claims that he gets his "authority" to spy on Americans, is as much to keep track of the American people as it is to keep track of terrorists.Posted at December 19, 2005 6:30 PM in response to NSA Wiretaps
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It is people like Jack Anderson who tell it like it is (and may sometimes risk thheir own lives to do so). Forget "checks and balances"; our government works on "winkin', $$$, blinkin' $$$, and nod $$$."
Posted at December 19, 2005 7:09 AM in response to RIP Jack Anderson
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Yours is a very good point about the pre-evidence leading up to 9/11 being gathered without the use of the Patriot Acts. I had not thought of it, and I doubt seriously if any members of Congress have thought of it either.
But, as you know, these "Patriot Acts" came into being, not because of 9/11, but because of the corporate-government's fear of the American people who dared challenge the governments policies during Vietnam.
Posted at December 15, 2005 11:13 AM in response to SENATE DEBATES PATRIOT ACT
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What good is it to have a Constitution or a Bill of Rights if the freedoms enumerated in those documents can be removed by the Patriot Acts?
Posted at December 15, 2005 8:34 AM in response to SENATE DEBATES PATRIOT ACT
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Again, Senator Feingold, thank you.
It is significant, I think, that the creation and the passing of both "Patriot Acts" was done with some hidden urgency; the first being passed with almost secrecy in the middle of the night, and the existance of the second part was denied until it could be denied no longer.
That one fact says a volumns about the motives of those who so urgently pushed them into the lives of the American people.
If these acts were as above board and without undermining the private freedoms of the American people as is claimed to be by those who support them, the American people would have no qualms about their passing and being implimented. But they are not, and the American people know it.
We have enough corrupt political history in this country over misdeeds by government officials (elected or not) to cause grave concern about turning over so much more power to them via the Patriot Acts.
Please ask Congress the following question; What good is it to the American people to have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights if they can be overridden by the Patriot Acts?
Thanks for listening.Posted at December 13, 2005 2:16 PM in response to I just got back from the Senate floor...
