Ha ha ha! Dean's finished

I love it.

Kerry is a local boy, so I have known what he really is for years.

The war-protesting decorated veteran.

The rich champion of the poor (known for his personal stinginess).

The quintessential revolving door.

I can't wait until he has to speak intelligently to people who aren't agreeing with him. Poor dumb 'ole Dubya's going to have fun making him look like the hypocrite he is.

 

...really and George Bush didn't arrive in this world with a silver spoon in his mouth??.... I call BS.... Is that all you got??

kerry's electabitlity and bushes week domestic policy is the cornstone of keery's campaign.

 

Re: Just A Gigolo

Typical of Ann Coulter. She is the right wing kook version of Michael Moore, but not as cute. Lots of nastiness, typical of the Coulter mentality, but no real substance

I think its hilarious that she is lambasting Kerry for being out of touch wih the middle class. . . and what super-rich family will Kerry be running against?

And I like the fact that the far right is going after Kerry for his anti-Vietnam war activities - its like they are mistakenly falling on their swords. All Kerry has to do is bring up Nixon and Kissinger's sabatoge of the peace talks just prior to the 1968 elections - they promised the S. VN government that a better peace deal would be reached with a Repub. administration than with a Democratic one. The S. VN took the bait and pulled out of the peace talks, Nixon won in a squeaker partly due to his secret plan to end the war, and the war dragged on for 5 more years. A million or more in VN, Laos and Cambodia died. Kissinger has spoken of this scheme in his autobiography.

BRING IT ON!!!!

On a side note, I do look forward to getting the goods on Kerry. maybe someone with free access to Lexis-Nexis can do some real research and dig up some dirt. But it will take someone smarter and more thorough than a barking dog like Coulter.

Rodger

 

And btw, there's nothing like a big cup o' joe and the BBS in the AM when the babies are sleeping and I can type with both hands!!


BRING IT ON, BABY!!! BRING IT OOOONNNNN!!!!

 

Hey roger big boy.... how about a date?? I'm a media whore!!

 

Quit it T/A!!! Calling Ann Coulter a media whore is insulting to whores.

 

Re: Re: Just A Gigolo

Did I miss something? Is Nixon running for President again?

The problem with Kerry the warrior is mis-stated here. This is the same tact taken when alluding to "Clinton being impeached for some harmless sex with an intern", when the fact is he was actually charged with lying under oath to Congress ABOUT that little incident, quite an important distinction.
The problem with Kerry the war hero is that he wants it both ways, he is both anti-military and has vast military experience and knowledge, depending on who he is pandering to at the time.

The more you listen to Kerry, the more you will see him for the career politician he is. His opinions are poll-driven and change constantly.

I'm not a big fan of Bush's domestic policies, he seems to be trying to beat the Dems at their own no-amount-of social-spending-is-enough game. Even though he has increased education spending by nearly 50% during his term, the constant cry from the education crowd is that he is failing our children.

The prescription drug benefit will be a nightmare, sucking countless more tax dollars from the paychecks of our kids who will already be faced with paying for a failed Ponzi scheme, er, Social Security system.

Rewarding illegal immigrants for managing to get here illegally by giving them legal status will only encourage more of the same.
(BTW, Rodger, one of the justifications I've seen for this is that it saves the cost of a trial, since no-one can be deported without one. That doesn't seem logical, do you know what the legal facts are concerning deporting illegals?)

All that said, you ain't seen spending until you've seen a career Massachusetts Democrat spend. Massachusetts and California have a lot in common, driving tax-paying businesses and entrepreneurial individuals out of the state as they fill it up with social-program recipients who love to vote for those liberal politicians who will vote for more social programs.
Eventually, as California is now discovering, there aren't enough taxpayers left to pay the bills.
But, oh, how tolerant and open-minded and forward-thinking they all are!

Of course, the worst part of Kerry is that he would return the war on terror to a "law-enforcement" action. We'll just serve the Osama's of the world with a summons and deal with them in a civilized, law-abiding manner when they show up in court with their lawyers. This tactic, after all, worked so well during the series of terrorist attacks over the course of many years which culminated in 9/11.

You may not like Coulter's editorial, but she has hit very close to the mark here. However, it's not Kerry's money that's the problem, it's his actions and attitudes. It is amusing, however, to see those who have lambasted Bush as a child of privilege now ignore the fact that Kerry is incredibly wealthy and infamous in his home-state for his lack of personal philanthropy. He loves to throw money at the problems, just someone else's money.

 

Re: Re: Re: Just A Gigolo

We can certainly agree on one thing, and that is that there are odd things that Bush is doing in a seeming attempt to take wind out of the Dems sails.

Another thing that we agree on is the immigration policy - IYC, I've done a bit of immigration work but I'm not an expert -- but I don't see why we can't monitor the border and have some simple and straight-forward policy that is adminsitered fairly as to all countries. I'm sure we couldn't afford to do a witch hunt and arrest and deport all illegal immigrants, but at least close the damn border for chrissakes!! (But we catch so few illegals that I don't see the $ savings from no trial as a big issue.

Rodger

 

hence my "landmines, and military sharpshooter training" idea.

 

ITC....damn your sphincter is tight this morning...

I enjoyed you little soapbox today

yeah the prescription drug bill is a little messed up, it has a huge whole in it in which the majority of seniors fit in.

failed ponzi scheme....just like every republican, raid the social security system or under fund it and then determine it failed. Lets see how this goes over in Florida, seniors do vote ya know.

no child left behind.....now you really don't know what talking about. That bill was nothing but hollow words, no increased funding for schools. Complete failure.

Immigration....news flash we have lost the war on immigration 20 years ago... I agree we should tighten up the borders; maybe some of that money we are wasting on airport security could have gone to increase security on the borders. Haven't the airlines suffered enough??

War on terrorism, really?? They still haven't found a shred of evidence to support the attack on Iraq. The Kay report verifies this. Last I checked the Saudis are running around unmolested and Osama is still on the loose. This is the last time I mention this. I am happy my buddies are coming back this week and I will throw them a party.

Patriot act.....shreds the bill rights should be repealed.

my 2 cents....sorry about misspellings in previous posts.

 

wow. who knew that team tomato hated bush?

 

Might address more of this later, but the education funding I mentioned has nothing to do with the No Child Left Behind bill.
Actual education funding has increased under Bush by just under 50% since he was elected. Of course, the education lobby will never tell you that. Obviously you weren't aware of it. The NTA will never be satisfied with any amount of money.

Curiously, even though education spending has increased tremendously, pupil scores keep falling. You don't suppose it has anything to do with teacher performance, do you? Nah, what a silly idea, implying employee performance might be linked to production quality issues.

Funny story: We have been working with my seventh grade daughter on her problems with math. Somehow, despite being passed from grade to grade, she does not have enough basic knowledge to handle middle school classes. Her current teacher sees the problem, but her solution is that we need to help her.
And although she can't seem to do anything to help her in her role as a teacher at the school I pay outrageous property taxes to support, she did offer to tutor her outside of school for only $25 hour.
Now THATS chutzpah.

 

IYC, out of curiosity..... why would your child's current teacher be responsible for the one's who have failed her in the past? her offer to tutor seems reasonable.

 

If she is able to help her outside of school, she should be able to help her in school. There are any number of free periods and there is always after school help. When I was in school, that solution was used, you came back after last period and the teacher could spend individual time with a student.
I look at teaching her what she needs to know as an over-all service, the school failed to teach her, the school needs to get her back on track. I don't care which particular employee failed to do their job. Teachers aren't independent contractors, they are employees of the school system.
If I sought out a teacher to tutor her, that would be one thing. I think it is wrong that the teacher's solution now is not to find a way to help her in school, but to try to use the situation to earn extra money outside of school. It's akin to bringing your car back to the dealership because they botched a tune-up and having the mechanic offer to work on it at his house sometime rather than re-doing the job at the dealership. I don't think it is ethical practice.

 

it sounded as if your child were significantly more than just a "little" behind. i agree the school system should be accountable, but it is what it is. she can't possible volunteer that kind of time for EVERY child that has been let down.

 

How would that be accomplished? Am I obligated to administer tests at home to back up the tests at school which she was passing? Must I assume the grades given the kids at school are just a sham to make the teacher look good?

 

Yes, it is. Yours, I mean. If your daughter doesn't have enough basic knowledge to handle middle school classes, well, that didn't happen overnight; how is it you're only noticing it now? You've been your daughter's parents for all her life; how is it that her lack of education is now being blamed on the person who happens to be in the room at this moment?

I am going to assume that you've never known a teacher personally; that you don't truly understand what you're saying, or how inaccurate and offensive it is. But I have a friend who's a high-school math teacher, and a damn good one at that. He cares about teaching, about imparting knowledge to others. He scrimps to get by on the miniscule excuse for a salary which we pay to the people we entrust with the education of our youth. He inherits discipline problems and educational problems from all the teachers who've let these kids get away with things before, and still struggles to make a difference; and after a difficult, frustrating day of teaching, he'll stay late to be the required 'adult presence' at various student activities, just to help out, just to make that difference.

He's quitting as of the end of this year. One of the primary reasons? Parents who can't be bothered to pay attention to their kids' issues, who think that blaming the teacher is the proper solution. There's also the administration which holds him accountable for maintaining a certain 'passing rate' in his classes, despite the fact that some of the kids coming into his classes can't even ADD let alone handle algebra -- and the school board which promises raises and then reneges on them -- and any number of other incredible frustrations; but the biggest issue, the biggest source of aggravation for him is the attitude on the part of SO MANY parents that the school is responsible for their kids' education -- to the utter exclusion of any involvement or commitment whatsoever on the parents' part.

If you want to complain about the educational system, there are certainly no end to the valid complaints you could make. The quota systems that exist everywhere, in which it is more important to pass X percent of the students every year than to admit that they don't know the work and spend the time teaching it to them -- the systems that reward teacher apathy and penalize the bright, idealistic young teachers who WANT to do a better job than they're allowed to do -- the ridiculous lack of funding for schools -- h*ll, I'm sure The System has failed your daughter in any number of ways. But to blame your daughter's current issues on her current teacher is to blame the lowest man on the totem pole, the one who has virtually NO say in the pressure coming down from the top -- AND to completely ignore the fact that for you to not have the slightest inkling that this was happening indicates a serious lapse on your part -- and it is not accurate, and it is not fair. Better to use your anger and frustration to poke at the local school board and try to get change to occur -- and to motivate you to maybe pay more attention to what's going on in your daughter's world. Kids can get up to the most *interesting* things when no one's watching... and later, you may find (though I certainly hope not!) that too much inattention can lead to much worse problems than mathematical ones.

=cinderella
Oh, look! This must be my rant of the day.

 

IYC, i understand that you are frustrated, and that it is easier to say that "they failed" versus taking some ownership for the inequity of your child's education. but, school isn't just a day care, and your due care and attention is essential to your child's success. no, i don't have kids,(i couldn't possibly imagine) nor am i placing blame. but hopefully you'd think about that $25 an hour for tutoring. catching your daughter up now, will ensure her success 10X greater than not cathing her up at all.

BW