Obama and EducationThis would have been a great opportunity for Matt Lauer to ask about the 216. Who are the 216? Like each of the families in Waiting for
Superman, thousands of parents in Washington, D.C., are dying to get their children out of violent and non-functioning local public schools and into alternatives like the Sidwell School that President Obama chooses to send his kids too.
One-thousand-seven-hundred low-income D.C. school children have
attended private schools with the help of the $7,500 scholarships awarded
through this D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program.
In the fall of 2008, 216 new low-income students were notified by
the Department of Education that they had been selected to receive scholarships.
These kids had their winning lottery tickets in hand. Then President Barack
Obama was elected with the help of the National Education Association and the
American Federation of Teachers. At the behest of Obama’s union allies,
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent letters to the 216 families informing
them that he was taking back the $7500 in scholarship money that the D.C.
Opportunity Scholarship program had previously awarded them. In
other words, President Barack Obama tore up their winning lottery tickets.
The article goes on to point out how much better the kids on the scholarship did than the rest of the students in the DC district. It appears for all his rhetoric, Obama really doesn’t believe in giving the poor a fair shot or at least the same shot he wants his children to have.
Class racism
Is class hatred equivalent of racism? Seems to be a good case for it using class elimination like genocide. The left loves to call the right racists even while they urge on class envy.
Naimark, author of the controversial new book Stalin’s Genocides,
argues that we need a much broader definition of genocide, one that includes
nations killing social classes and political groups. His case in point:
Stalin.
The book’s title is plural for a reason: He argues that the Soviet
elimination of a social class, the kulaks (who were higher-income farmers), and
the subsequent killer famine among all Ukrainian peasants – as well as the
notorious 1937 order No. 00447 that called for the mass execution and exile of
“socially harmful elements” as “enemies of the people” – were, in fact,
genocide.
Is murdering a class somehow better than murdering a race? Is
fomenting class-hatred somehow better than fomenting race-hatred?
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/september/naimark-stalin-genocide-092310.html
What happened to fifties Catholicism?
Here’s an interesting read that may lead you to buy a new book. If you are a Catholic, a former Catholic or just someone interested in religious history this seems fascinating.
In Hull’s thesis, the Sixties revolution in Roman Catholic practice was
in large measure a result of the Counter-Reformation and Vatican I
centralization of power in the papacy: In the traditional understanding, the
pope was the “custodian” of tradition — but the response to the Protestant
Reformation and the French Revolution made Catholicism expand that role
significantly, from “custodian” to “arbiter” (the quoted words are Hull’s). The
need for a strong defense against outside attacks on the Church made Catholics
rally around the pope, in the name of orthodoxy, little intending that that same
power could eventually be deployed in the interest of heterodoxy. (They might in
this sense have benefited from an understanding of O’Sullivan’s First Law:
“All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become
left-wing.” In this ecclesial case, of course, the contrast would
not be the political one between right-wing and left-wing, but rather one
between tradition and experimentation.)
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/248138/what-happened-fifties-catholicism-mike-potemra
Senate blocks recess appointments with deal between Dems, GOP
Senate Democrats agreed Wednesday night to a Republican demand to block
President Obama from making recess appointments while Congress is out of town
campaigning for the midterm elections.Democratic leaders have agreed to schedule pro-forma sessions of the Senate every week over the next six weeks, a move that will prevent Obama from making emergency appointments, according to Senate sources briefed on the talks.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/121775-senate-blocks-recess-appointments
It is a lawyers' adage: If you have the law on your side, argue the
law; if you have the facts, argue the facts; if you have neither, pound the
table. Forgive the Democrats for their current table-pounding.
They cannot run on their record, which has
two pillars. One is the stimulus that did not stimulate as they said it would
(or else unemployment would not be above 8 percent). The report that the
recession ended in June 2009 means the feeble recovery began before stimulus
spending really started.
The second pillar is the health-care legislation. This may not be
(as suggested by Michael Barone, author of the Almanac of American Politics) the
most unpopular major legislation since the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. But it
remains as unpopular as it was when the administration told Americans to pipe
down and eat their broccoli.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/29/AR2010092905608.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Why Dems Are Going Down in November
Unless something totally unforeseen occurs, Democrats are poised to take a
real beating in November. Their response to the impending disaster has run the
gamut. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is in denial: "One thing I know for
sure is that Democrats will retain their majority in the House of
Representatives." Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is condescending: "We have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on, so
people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or
what's happening." President Obama is angry: "It is inexcusable for any Democrat
or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election."
Why is the electorate ready to kick Democrats to the curb? Here's why:
http://jewishworldreview.com/0910/ahlert.php3
An excellent summary of the problems, arrogance, and stupidity that is bringing an end to the Democrats 40 years in power 38 years early.
The Arrogance of the Left
When America votes for a liberal candidate, it is redeemed by the left
as intelligent -- and derided as dense when it does not. We were told not to
worry that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner did not pay all his income taxes
since we were lucky to have someone so well educated and experienced in high
finance.
Note that few Democratic candidates are running on the health-care
bill they passed, promising at the time that it would be appreciated by a
suspicious American public. More federal borrowing and amnesty are still pushed
under the euphemisms "stimulus" and "comprehensive immigration reform." House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that the tea party movement was merely a synthetic Astroturf movement. Professors and preachers may like such sermonizing, but for politicians it's a lousy way to get elected. Again, compare the relative fates of the patronizing Adlai Stevenson and the plain-speaking Harry
Truman.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/09/30/democrats_cling_to_arrogance.html
The Middle Has Swung Against Dems
WASHINGTON -- Sometimes the most important clues are hiding in plain view.
That was the case in late June, when the Gallup Organization reported that the
share of voters who describe themselves as conservative had increased from 37
percent to 42 percent in the past two years.That does not sound like a big
change. But given the long-term stability of these basic philosophical
alignments, the reaction it measured to the economic troubles and the
performance of the new Democratic administration is very significant....
This is an excellent article and concludes with the paragraph below.
But if Gallup is right, and I believe its methodology is solid, there simply
are fewer liberal votes to be won this time. And, as the Third Way memo says, "While the middle has always played a pivotal role in American electoral
politics, where they swing this fall will certainly decide the fate of the
Democratic majority."
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