Swift Boat Attack II - John Murtha

"A crowd that regularly defends President Bush for serving in the Texas Air National Guard instead of going to Vietnam has continued its war on actual Vietnam veterans. An outfit called the Cybercast News Service last week questioned the circumstances surrounding the awarding of two Purple Hearts to Murtha because of wounds he suffered in the Vietnam War.

"John Kerry, as well as John McCain -- who faced scurrilous attacks on his war record when he was running against Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary -- could have warned Murtha: If you're a Vietnam veteran, don't you dare get in the way of George W. Bush . . .

E.J. Dionne

Read more@ Washington Post

10 Reasons Why Jack Bauer Wants To Implement The Do Group Alert System at New Richmond School Board Meetings

1. At the last school board meeting Bauer showed up wearing the same constipated frown as Bill B.
2. At the last Do Group meeting, Bauer demanded that each school building be named after former school district principals.
3. Bauer says "I can't even spell 'paralegal'."
4. Lives by motto: "When in doubt, blame everybody but Bill and Judy."
5. Three words: Ax To Grind.
6. Whenever he goes under cover, Bauer cross-dresses and uses the name Connie.
7. Bauer's top advisors are a a bunch of anonymous bloggers who spend all their free time attacking hardworking, dedicated members of the community and then whine when the community slaps back.
8. Bauer likes to wear a button that says, "Pat, what is a Taj Mahal?"
9. Bauer wants to open meetings singing his version of "Mandy," instead of saying the Pledge Allegiance.
10.The "24" stands for the temperature at which Bauer gets in his car and drives by the New Richmond Middle at 7:15 in the morning to see how many kids don't want to stand inside the heated waiting area.

Anonymous Minnesota Blogger Sued for Libel

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the story of Michael Brodkorb, a formerly anonymous blogger at Minnesota Democrats Exposed who has been forced to reveal his identity as part of a lawsuit against his site.

Facing suit, anonymous blogger lifts his mask

Read more@ Outside The Beltway

Florida Court Rules School Vouchers Unconstitutional

In a major blow to anti-public education critics in Florida, the Florida Supreme Court today struck down the state's Opportunity Scholarship program, the nation's first statewide school choice program. For six years, Opportunity Scholarships have enabled families to opt out of failing public schools and into better-performing public or private schools by a voucher program at taxpayer expense.

Read more:
North Country Gazette: Florida's School Choice Program Ruled Unconstitutional

National Review Online:
School choice’s last, best hope, in Florida

Sarasota Herald Tribune:
Court's voucher ruling erodes school choice

Fundamentally Electable

Killbear: “Joining us now is our Senior Middle Eastern Educational Liberty Correspondent Wiis Al-Anon-i-mis to discuss the latest developments in the election.”

Wiis: “Thanks Curt.”

Killbear: “Wiis, one of the candidates is James Ham-ass. What do you think of his chances?”

Wiis: “There are those that think that Ham-ass will continue to call for the destruction of socialistic education and its replacement by a theocratic form of education based on a strict eating of the Koran-on-the-cob.”

Killbear: “Sounds fundamentally yummy.”

Wiis: “Exactly, yet there are those who believe that Ham-ass will need to moderate his views to keep the other members of his party from committing purple kool-aid suicide attacks.”

Killbear: “Certainly that would be a threat to their liberty and freedom.”

Wiis: “Certainly. And Ham-ass follows a strict code of capitalistic morality. Twice a day he bows and prays to the east – toward Bloomington, Illinois.”

Killbear: “As we all do, Wiis, as we all do. Thanks for your report.”

Killbear Rapporter Reporting form Mecca

OTBL Post on Societal Stockholm Syndrome titled "ALERT!"

On his way to Stockholm, the OTBL admin most have loaded up on the wacky weed in Amsterdam...Anyway, it's another attempt by the ontheborderline.net admin to wrap the cellophane of his creative ignorance around his three-headed -- anti-education, anti-union, anti-community -- mantra and sell his baloney as precious art. He hopes to become a highly-valued, intellectual authority on the blogoshpere but, once again, ends up another delapidated, roadside attraction endangering our children's future with the lure of brightly colored,lead-based paint chips...two-headed snake just up ahead!

Read a definetion and further explaintion of Societal Stockholm Syndrome.

Anonomousierity Is Running Rampant

Tonight's WORD is Anonomousierity.

There are lots of people saying lots of things anonomously lately. Usually, they are things that they wouldn't say to other people right to their face and every participant in this activity is trying to outdo the others. All of a sudden it's become Xtremely competetive.
The practice has become so wide spread that I think the International Olympic Committee is considering making it an event in 2008. We dug exhaustively and managed to find at least one potential Olympian in the growing sport of Anonomousierity.


And that's our WORD for tonight.

Killbear Rapporter, reporting from Hudson, WI.

OTBL'ers will love this!

Read more in St. Paul Pioneer Press

Check out the above link to the Pioneer Press (you may have to register to read it), Home School friendly Minnesota is putting their foot down on two high school skiers from Wisconsin (currently does not allow home schoolers to participate in sports) who have participated for Chisago Lakes coop team with St. Croix Falls.

Is this going to make the way for Bill Danielson to file suit against Wisconsin to allow his daughter to play high school ... oh wait that's right he is in Mississippi educating his daughter! How soon we forget!

Progressive Heroes: C. Delores Tucker

Dr. C. DeLores Tucker - The National Political Congress of Black Women, Inc. was founded in 1984 as an independent, nonpartisan political organization to encourage all black women to participate in the political process as voters, political candidates, policy makers, fund raisers and political role models for younger people. The Congress encourages direct involvement in politics, beginning with registering and voting, as a primary means of accomplishing the goals all people seek in terms of education, jobs, housing business opportunities and an end to all forms of discrimination. She died October 12 at the age of 78.

More links on Tucker's life:
Washington Post obit
Pittsburg Post-Gazatte obit

Can The Republicans Put The Big Government Big In The Bottle

If the Republican majority in the Senate and House can somehow stave off a newly energized Democratic assault in the midterm polls next November and preserve their governing status, they may well have Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana to thank.

Read more: Kansas City Star

Quotes to Ponder

"Unions can no more live without democracy than a fish without water."

--Lane Kirkland
President, AFL-CIO

Check out: BigLabor.com and unionionist.com

Ignorance Is Bliss...Stupidity Is Permanent

ChoosingLife @ OnTheBorderLine September 27, 2005


Proof that intelligent life didn't exist ontheborderline.net in September 2005 and it still doesn't.

The Killbear Rapport

George: “Marge, turn on the tube –and bring me a Blogger Lager- the Killbear Rapport is on.”

Marge: “Oh good, now we can get to the truthiness.”

Host-Curt Killbear: “Ladies and Gentlemen, this just in. A former soviet spy has relocated to Stone Pine and, acting as a super secret double agent, is currently sending anonymous threat letters to Dick Cheney to make it appear that the Russian’s are ready to attack. Our Killbear Rapport chief handwriting analyst Dr. Dan Williamson has concluded that the soviet spy has defected, embraced capitalism, and is now trying to make the Russians look bad. In response, counter-terrorism operatives in the Bush Administration have been sending anonymous threat letters to President Putin trying to make the socialists in Finland look bad. Meanwhile, wing-nut bloggers in Hudson, Wisconsin are writing anonymous postings which make them look bad. Remember, you heard it here first.”

Marge: “Oh George, I’m not very bright, I just don’t get it. What do you think of all of these shenanigans?”

George: “Buuuuuuuurrrrrrrpppppp!”

Circus protesters win free speech lawsuit

...that means it's ok to pick on the ontheborderline.net clowns!

Two animal rights activists who were arrested in the HP Pavilion parking lot while protesting the treatment of circus animals were each awarded $2,400 by a federal jury in San Jose that found their free speech rights had been violated.

Read all about it! Mercury News

Points to Ponder

"When the rich concern themselves with the poor, that’s called charity. When the poor concern themselves with the rich, that’s called revolution."

--William Winpisinger,
President, IAM, 1981

Pen & Ink Jabs

Check out: Big Labor.com and Unionist.com

Quote of Note

"I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property."

Alexis de Tocqueville(1805-1859)
French historian
Source: Democracy in America, 1835

OTBL Leaders Suspect Mole in Ranks

Moscow:

OTBL’s main intelligence agency (yes, I know that’s a contradiction) on Monday accused several unnamed HSO readers of spying — using electronic equipment hidden inside a fake rock in a remote part of Stone Pine. Sources close to OTBL leadership have spoken off the record with the press saying: “Details of our secret plan to overthrow public education have leaked out, we suspect one of our own.” There have been rumors of late that several core OTBL members have been dabbling with Socialist ideas lately. They have been overheard to say things like “Maybe Wal-Mart should provide healthcare benefits to their full time employees” and “I guess my children are getting a fairly good education at Hudson High.” Naturally, this kind of thinking is blasphemous. Our sources report that OTBL leadership has their “undies in a bunch” over this breach in their usually air tight security.

There have been suggestions that the OTBL moles pass their information to outside sources by transmitting data to the spyrock while on latenight walks with their dogs.

Witnesses say they’ve seen members of the OTBL leadership out late at night with metal detectors trying to pinpoint the location of the spyrock.

Meanwhile, the public statements from OTBL continue to claim that critics “Protesteth Too Mucheth”, and “We are concerned citizens who are pro-education reform not anti-public education extremists bent on dismantling the Public Education plague that has befallen our nation.” OTBL leadership refused to comment beyond saying. Or public propaganda clearly states our goals for reform, there is no secret agenda.” (Really?)

Wal-Mart bill only makes a dent in larger problem

"Any business that cannot pay living wages is not viable and ultimately hurts our economy."

"Foreign business owners laugh at the suckers we taxpayers have become."

Read more: USA Today.

Colgate Outsources From Indiana to Tennessee

Wages drop from $22/hour to $9.50
Number of jobs drop from 475 to 220
Union busted...
The Colgate-Palmolive Co. announced last week that it will build a toothpaste factory in Morristown, Tenn., as part of a cost-cutting strategy that includes closing a similar plant in Clarksville, Ind. The 475 employees at the Clark County facility learned in October the plant would stop production by Jan. 1, 2008, ending more than 80 years of Colgate manufacturing in Southern Indiana.

Rick Davis of New Albany, Ind., a 30-year veteran of the Clarksville plant, called the decision to move to Tennessee "sickening." Davis said he earns about $22 an hour, the average wage for a union employee. He said the move to Morristown was based on "corporate greed" and the company's desire to "get rid of unions." In a statement yesterday, Colgate said the move was based on the cost of land, the cost of preparing a site and unspecified operating costs.

Read more in the Louisville Courier Journal.

Remember: What's good for business and the consumer is usually bad for the worker.

Brokeback Mountain II

ASKED his opinion of gay cowboy romance movie Brokeback Mountain, US President George W. Bush ummed and hawed.

A man told Mr Bush during a gathering at Kansas State University on Monday he would "love it".

Mr Bush, who owns a ranch in Texas, replied hesitantly: "I'd be glad to talk about ranching, but I haven't seen the movie."

South Carolinians React to "Stupid In America"

The most poignant point in the documentary suggested the money we spend on education in the public school system should be "attached to the kid" (vouchers in another word) rather than the way we currently spend educational dollars - giving it to the schools and the kids being assigned to the schools based largely on where they live.
...
South Carolina was referred to time and time again as having the worst public schools in the United States. If I were in charge of the public school system, I would be ashamed of this statistic and do everything in my power to see that our school system moves from the bottom of the scale.
...
There was a mention of states with teachers' unions, where it is almost impossible to fire a teacher.
...
Fortunately, he gave us a solution - school choice. Our Legislature has an opportunity to help move the state forward by implementing real education reform this year. School choice must be a part.
...
I agree and don't understand why our education and elected officials are so hesitant to try something that could be of benefit. As "20/20" showed, it certainly can't hurt.

Read the letter to the editor: Charleston Post and Courier.

Alabama Senate takes up charter school system overhaul

Senators argued that the state needs to overhaul how it nurtures and runs charter schools Tuesday as the first day of floor debate began amid criticism the proposal would take money and control from local school systems.

The legislation ultimately could make it easier for charter school supporters to set up the schools over the objections of local school districts.

Read more: Tuscaloosa News.

Are Taxpayers in School Bondage?

Are Educators squandering public funds, too?

There is a fundamental debate going on about public education. Almost everyone agrees that the schools in general are failing in myriad ways, but the agreement pretty much ends there.

One side believes that schools simply aren’t getting enough money, even though school funding consumes more than 40 percent of California’s general fund. The other side argues that schools have plenty of money, but that the money is misspent on bureaucracy, and schools lack competition and oversight.

Read more: The Monitor

I Thought We Were The Good Guys?

Investigator: U.S. 'outsourced' torture
JAN SLIVA
Associated Press
STRASBOURG, France - The head of a European investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons in Europe said Tuesday that evidence pointed to the existence of a system of "outsourcing" of torture by the United States, and that it was highly likely European governments were aware of it.

Read more: San Jose Mercury News

Wisconsin School Voucher Program: Forget those public school "Cadillacs"

Teachers paid from sale of Mercedes

Car is only asset worth much from failed voucher school

The six dilapidated school buses brought only a paltry sum. The desks and other classroom furnishings weren't worth the cost of transporting them. Rumors swirled about other assets, but none could be found.

$330,000: Amount David Seppeh was convicted in October of stealing from the state during the 2003-'04 school year.
$43,000: Approximate cost of one of the two Mercedes Seppeh is said to have bought with the stolen money.
$27,648:Amount the sale of that same Mercedes brought.
More than$200,000: Amount in the school employees claimed in back pay.

Read more at Milwuakee Journal Sentinal Online.

Wonkiness: It's a Good Thing?

On Jan 13^th School board candidate James Baker wrote in the Hudson Star Observer,

”I am frequently asked what motivates me to run for a position on the Board of Education. As a parent and publicly educated science wonk, I am deeply concerned about curriculum content and academic standards.”

It would appear to me that Mr. Baker seems to be promoting wonkiness as one of his finest qualities. From Mr. Baker’s statement most reasonable voters would conclude that wonkiness is a character trait that motiviates him to run for the School board. So what's the big stink Mr. N. Onimous ?

Mr. Muchlinski compliments Mr. Baker on his wonkiness, “Man, what a wonk.” And asks a question, about the schools”But what is the wonky solution to the problem?”

Mr. N. Onimous, after coming home from a hard day of filling out public information requests for teacher compensation packages seems to take offense. (Oh, as an aside, compensation does not equal salary. About 3o% of compensation is for benefits similar to what most employees in industrialized nations receive as part of their employment. Wal-Mart doesn't count.) So, when ole’ N. Onimous starts broadcasting compensation packages of our local teachers, to embarrass them, and "Citizen Joe" extrapolates that “compensation package” into months that teachers don’t work (or get paid) they're putting out information to the public which my Grandpa used to call “a fib”.

One more point, taxpayers should take a little trip down to the High School to see some of the extraordinary art work on display by Ms. Muchliski and her students, before they determine how “overpaid” she is. Perhaps N. Onimous will add "art critic" to his long resume and do a critical review for us in one of his future blathers at ontheborderline.

But for now N. Onimous seems content trying to launch his comedy career.
Lets sit back and enjoy his latest shtick.

From: N.Onimous.

“Here's a conversation coming from a common taxpayer's kitchen table-

"Hey Marge, that art teacher's husband really makes sense this week, I think I'll vote for one of the five socialists in the race rather than Jim Baker"

"I think you're right honey" "Even though the taxes on our house are driving us into bankruptcy, I agree with Mr. Muchlinski"

"Yes Marge I suppose I should attend one of those morning coffee meetings at the Muchlinski's to meet the teachers union choices. I hear he held several of those for Tjernohoj and Muenich last year."

"That's a good idea George" "I still don't understand how all the teachers and their spouses seem to care more about our children than we do, but that's what they tell us"

Minneapolis Star-n-Sickle Hijacked By Anti-Education Columnist

Columnist Katherine Kersten asked this question is her column today (1/23/06):

So why is teachers union running costly TV ads?

If I didn't know better, I would have thought that Mark Yost had jumped ship from the Pioneer-Press and joined the Star-n-Sickle (-- that's what all my media-bias, right-wing neo-con friends ontheborderline.net call the Minneapolis paper.)

Kersten's column raises some interesting questions concerning the motives of a million dollar ad campaign currently being run by Education Minnesota.

Read the entire column: Kersten column.

Check out the Education Minnesota website that is the focus of the ad campaign: see site & take survey.

Kitty Rhoades wants you to keep paying for Badger Care health benefits for Wal-Mart employees

'Wal-Mart bills' focus on getting workers off government health care

Kitty Rhoades says:
Getting big business of government welfare sends a dangerous message to businesses. Supports letting the individual taxpayers and small businesses pay for Wal-Mart health benefits.

"It's hard to say we want to bring jobs here, and we want businesses to come to this state, and by the way, we're going to slap you with these things," said Rep. Kitty Rhoades (R-Hudson), who specializes in Medicaid issues for the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee

(Hey! There's $6 million Governor Doyle could use to help pay for the heating bills of the poor this winter or use to help provide poor kids with schlorship and college education assistance to they can earn degrees in engineering.)

"Why should small-business people have to foot the bill for someone who is making millions and millions in profit?"

That question is at the core of a new law in Maryland that effectively requires Wal-Mart to spend at least 8% of its payroll on health benefits or make a contribution to the state's health programs for low-income families.

Wal-Mart says 5% of its 1.3 million U.S. employees receive Medicaid, and 27% of its employees' children get health care through Medicaid or affiliated programs such as Wisconsin's BadgerCare. It says that percentage is lower than the retail sector average of 36%.

Unions and activists say dozens of states are considering variations of the Maryland legislation - including Wisconsin. In most states, the bills are given little chance of becoming law. Hearings were held last week on Wisconsin's version, backed by Rep. Terese Berceau (D-Madison) and Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), but the bill is all but dead in committee.

Read more in Milwuakee Journal

Study Says: College students lack key skills

The following is a news brief taken form the 1/22/06 Sunday edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Washington: Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food. Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers. More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks. That means they could not interpret a table about exercises and blood pressure, unable to understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

I noticed the same information was posted ontheborderline.net. It just goes to show you that great minds think alike -- or even a blind squirrel finds a nut. Anyway, I was interested in seeing what the OTBL'ers had to comment about this study. My guess is that this would apppear to another tally mark on their reasons why public education is bad, unions are evil, etc.

Well consider the following comment:

Here is another comment from the study:

“Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.”

I have heard this from several college professors, a high school math teacher, and business people that students do not have the ability to estimate. Wouldn't have anything to do with the constant parade of "new math" curriculum or the dependency on calculators would it?

Unfortunately our children are being used as laboratory rats upon which curriculum directors and social worker experiment on in order to justify their very existence.

Comment by Mark Pribonic, 1/20/2006 @5:22 pm
---

I highlighted the "unfortunately..." conclusion to Mr. Pribonic's quote, because he might not have written this had he read a little deeper into the survey links provided in the OTBL post.

Read the complete American Institute of Research study.

Below is the fact sheet provided with the study. It is an interesting summary of the findings in the study. The laboratory rat experiments being done on today's children. I highlighted the finding that the results don't differ between public and private school students. Likeiwse, note that these students scored higher that non students -- which we would hope.
---
FACT SHEET: THE NATIONAL SURVEY OF AMERICA'S COLLEGE STUDENTS
The National Survey of America’s College Students (NSACS) surveyed the English-language abilities of 1,827 students in their final year at 80 randomly selected 2-year and 4-year public and private colleges and universities across the United States.

The survey measured abilities related to three types of skills: prose, document, and quantitative literacy. Prose literacy indicates the ability to read and understand information in newspapers, brochures, and instructional materials. Document literacy involves the ability to comprehend job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables, and food or prescription drug labels. Quantitative literacy involves the ability to perform computations – including balancing a checkbook, calculating a tip, or completing an order form. Literacy levels were categorized as Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient based on the abilities of participants.

The Literacy of College Students Compared to the Nation
The average prose, document, and quantitative literacy of students in 2- and 4-year institutions is significantly higher than the average literacy of adults in the nation.

Across the literacy scales, the percentage of students in 2- and 4-year institutions with Below Basic literacy is significantly lower than the percentage of adults in the nation with Below Basic literacy. Below Basic literacy involves simple literacy skills, such as reading instructions to find out what a patient is allowed to drink before a medical test, or adding up amounts on a bank deposit slip.

One percent of students in 4-year institutions have Below Basic prose literacy skills, while one percent have Below Basic document literacy, and another one percent have Below Basic quantitative literacy.

Students in 2-year institutions scored similarly, with one percent having Below Basic skills in the prose and document categories, while four percent are Below Basic in quantitative literacy.
Students in 2- and 4-year colleges have the most difficulty with quantitative literacy:
approximately 30 percent of students in 2-year institutions and nearly 20 percent of students in 4-year institutions have only Basic quantitative literacy. Basic literacy skills are those necessary to compare ticket prices or calculate the cost of a sandwich and a salad from a menu.

Among college students, there are no significant differences in the average prose, document, and quantitative literacy of men and women – indicating that women may be making process in bridging a divide that has long existed between the sexes.

The average literacy of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian students in 4-year colleges is significantly higher than that of adults in the same racial and ethnic groups in the nation.
The average prose and quantitative literacy of White students in 4-year institutions is higher than for any other racial/ethnic group, mirroring trends in the general population. White students also have the highest prose and document literacy among 2-year colleges.

Institutional Context and Literacy
There are no significant differences in the literacy of students graduating from public and private institutions. Additionally, there are no differences in the skills of part-time and full-time students. Generally, there is no relationship between literacy and the length of time it takes to earn a degree, or between literacy and an academic major.

Students in 4-year colleges have higher average prose, document, and quantitative literacy than their peers in 2-year colleges.

The literacy of students in 2-year schools does not differ based on the academic or technical curricular emphasis of the school.

Student Characteristics and Literacy
Among students in 2- and 4-year institutions, average prose, document, and quantitative literacy is higher for U.S.-born students than for their foreign-born peers.

Despite variations in income, most differences in the literacy of students across income groups are not significant. The only significant differences exist between students in 4-year institutions with the lowest and highest income backgrounds. Students in the highest income group (either their personal income or the income of their parents) have higher prose and document literacy than students in the lowest income group.

The literacy levels of college students are directly related to the education of their parents: children whose parents graduated college or attended graduate school have higher literacy than students whose parents did not graduate high school or stopped after receiving a high school diploma or GED.

This pattern of results related to parents’ education among students in 2-year institutions is similar to that of their peers in 4-year institutions.

Students who graduate from U.S. high schools have higher literacy than graduates from foreign high schools, though the literacy of students from foreign schools is similar to or greater than the literacy of all U.S. adults.

College Experience and Literacy
Prose and document literacy is higher for students in 2- and 4-year institutions who take classes that emphasize analytic thinking, such as evaluating the strength of arguments and applying theories to practical problems or new situations. Prose and quantitative literacy is lower for students in 4-year colleges and universities who say they frequently meet with their professors outside of class to discuss readings.

Although students who switch colleges may face challenges, the average literacy of students in 2- and 4-year institutions does not differ based on the number of institutions they attend.
For students in 4-year colleges, average prose, document, and quantitative literacy is similar across most majors.

Students in 2-year institutions have similar literacy to one another regardless of major.
Among students in 4-year colleges, document and quantitative literacy is highest for students who plan to earn a professional degree (e.g., law, medicine, or dentistry).
For students in 2-year institutions, literacy is lowest for students who report they will stop their education after obtaining an Associate’s degree.


Established in 1946, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is an independent, nonpartisan not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research on important social issues and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and workforce productivity.

The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Pew Charitable Trusts serves the public interest by providing information, advancing policy solutions and supporting civic life. Based in Philadelphia, with an office in Washington, D.C., the Trusts will invest $204 million in fiscal year 2006 to provide organizations and citizens with fact-based research and practical solutions for challenging issues.
---

What I find interesting in the debates over K-12 education, be it public or private, charter or voucher, is there are valid arguments on all sides of the issues, but none of the sides seem to be interested in listening to what the other side has to say. It's like everybody wants to "teach" the other side on the issue and nobody wants to "learn" how to fix the problems.

Conceal & Carry in Kansas

Sounds like they too have a Governor with some sense...

In 2004, almost the exact same bill passed both the House and Senate, but was vetoed by the Governor.

"I think it's a good thing, because there's a lot of crazy people out there and you don't know when some hot-headed person's going to pull out a gun or something on the road."

VS.

"The opponents will try to waive the bloody shirt or say the sky is falling like Chicken Little. But, the reality is all of those dire predictions do not come true, and citizens should have the means to protect themselves and their families."
---
Meanwhile, the Governor says her position on the matter hasn't changed.






Read more: KAKE TV report.

Sunday Schoolin'

Stossel presented skewed 20/20 segment on "stupid" public schools

Summary:
ABC's John Stossel presented a "special report" on the failure of American public schools that included a series of misleading claims, a lack of balance in reporting and interviews, and video clips apparently created primarily for entertainment to argue for expanding "school choice" initiatives such as vouchers and charter schools.

Read more @ Media Matters. Numerous helpful links included in this story.