Comments on: Giving the people what they want

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:05:52 +0000

Council speak 03/04/09…

The Council has spoken! This week’s winning Council entry was Rhymes With Right’s About The Chimp Cartoon, which observes that racial insults (however tortured or implied they are) of Democrats are considered worse than explicit racial insults of Rep…

By: Rhymes With Right

Rhymes With Right — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:51:05 +0000

Watcher’s Council Results…

Here are the most recent results of the Watcher’s Council vote — with the pleasant surprise that i actually won for the first time in a while. Winning Council Submissions First place with 1 2/3 points! – Rhymes With Right……

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:38:00 +0000

Submitted 02/27/09…

This week’s Watcher’s Council nominations are up. About The Chimp Cartoon – Rhymes With Right comments on the suddenly enlightened view of the critics of a recent cartoon depicting policemen shooting a chimp. Though the chimp in no way represented th…

By: The Colossus of Rhodey

The Colossus of Rhodey — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:47:28 +0000

Watcher’s Council nominations…

This week’s Council nominations are as follows: * Rhymes With Right – About The Chimp Cartoon * Joshuapundit – Holder: US A Nation Of Cowards On Race * The Glittering Eye – How Not to Draw a Conclusion * The……

By: Right Truth

Right Truth — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:08:59 +0000

No Coward Here: Start the Conversation…

“. . . help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will……

By: Scott in SF

Scott in SF — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:05:24 +0000

I read an article in the New Yorker Mag. (Yes I know we all hate the New Yorker) by the economist who wrote the book Blink. He said that if California fired the bottom performing 6% of teachers based on testing outcomes, California would not only have the best performing schools in the country, we would out perform every other country in the world!

Unions are a problem, they won’t let us fire even the worst.

Oh, and the Unions keep real athletes and movement experts out of the schools because they compete with PE teachers. I’m in the schools teaching world dance only because they fired all the art teachers.

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:51:12 +0000

Oceanguy,
Well said! If only the Republicans in D.C. were serious about reducing the scope and reach of their own power, there might be hope there. All we ever get from Republicans in D.C., though, is a very *minor* reduction in the SPEED of national government expansion of power. They slow it down a bit, then a Democrat comes in (Obama) and simply speeds it up again.

I’m cynical this evening, sorry. Reagan said he’d abolish the Dept of Education, and he failed. I can’t see any Republican, or any conservative movement, right now, capable of eviscerating any national federal program.

By: oceanguy

oceanguy — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:29:59 +0000

It seems to me that a dramatic… or at least significant… downturn in public education performance began with the Carter Administration and accelerated as Carter’s Department of Education took root and built its empire, and expanded it’s influence.

I’d love to see the figure of the taxpayers’ money that’s been spent on the Department of Education… I’d argue that every penny of it has been wasted. I can’t identify a single Good result that has sprung from Carter’s folly.

Public Education wasn’t perfect before Carter but since Carter there is little argument that Education standards and performance has declined. It’s just another case of more government being the wrong approach.

The Federal government does not need a Cabinet level position, and the HUGE wasteful bureaucracy that goes with it, in order to distribute… redistribute… tax dollars from high performing states to low performing states. But every penny ever spent on the Department of Education has been a waste and has taken money from classrooms. Do away with it.

By: suek

suek — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:26:58 +0000

When it comes to schools, all I can offer is that as long as control is local, you can oust your school board. Granted, much – too much, imo – control belongs to the State. You know how responsive the State is to parents’ desire for change. You pretty much have to change the entire State government to effect any change in the educational programs.

Now consider placing control and determination for standards and methods into the hands of the Federal Government.

Control??? fageddaboutit.