I agree with you Paleocon, but it should go further. First of all, the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished. This department was created by Jimmy Carter as a Payback and Gift to the National Teacher Unions who were primarily responsible for the election of this incompetent socialist.

Under the Obama administration, the U.S. Department now has an annual budge of over 200 billion dollars, and not one cent of that goes to pay a teacher salary.  Under the Obama Education Plan, which was crafted by Bill Ayers, his old communist terrorist buddy back in Chicago, the local and state governments are stripped of their last vestiges of autonomy and local control.  Under the Obama Education Plan, they plan to have Mandatory Attendance Laws passed that start at age 2.  Yes, you heard that right.  Obama wants to implement policy that will Make It Mandatory that Parents Relinquish and Turn Over Their children as early as age 2 to Government Day Care Centers, euphemistically called Early Childhood Learning Centers.  Their aim is to insure that not Even One Child Is Left Behind, who might on the off chance go un-brainwashed, and dumbed down by a public, government run school system.

I have long advocated for the abolishment of the U.S. Department of Education, which would end the Teacher Union's stranglehold on Public Schools.  But, in the interim, I have encouraged parents at every local level in the country, to march on their schools and school boards and Tell Them That They, the Citizens, are taking Charge of their Local Schools, and then the schools would be run in a way that Reflect Local Traditions, Customs, Values, Language, Ethics, Civic Responsibility, etc.

The California Leftists and other Anti-American, Anti-Family communists and assorted perverts have all but destroyed the public education system, and it has a direct correlation to the U.S. Dept. of Education and Teacher Union controls.  If we are to save our nation, we have to take Back Our Children and our Schools and put them under Local Control where they belong.

In this Tuscaloosa News Article, they were speaking of Dropout Rates and the Consequences.  The following were my comments:

 

"Quote from this article:

 

"Among the solutions recommended by the guidebook are smaller schools, school choice, and more flexibility in curriculum based more on real-world themes. Greater community and parental involvement in schools is important. So too is stronger discipline in student attendance, behavior and effort."  Right On, this would be a Great First Start.

 

These are the solutions that need to be addressed.  For about 200 years, public schools were under the domain and control of the communities in which the schools were located, and up until this state and local control was subverted by the U.S. government, the U.S. public education system was in the top 2 or 3 in the world for academic outcomes.

 

Beginning in the 1960's, the federal government began to intervene in Locally Controlled Schools and it has all been downhill ever since.

 

Children were ripped from their local communities and transported here and yond in an effort to Create Sameness and supposedly, equality. All suffered from these failed policies and decisions.

 

By the mid-1970's, after only about 10 years of Federal Intervention (Socialistic Policies), academic outcomes were declining at a rapid pace as the Social Engineers continued to Experiment with our children and the school system that had served this nation so well for over 200 years.  In the 1976 presidential election, the National and State Teacher Unions got out a great deal of support for Jimmy Carter, who in return, started the U.S. Department of Education as a Gift and Payback to the Teacher Unions, and the Decline in Educational Outcomes that was already in rapid decline, thanks to Federal Interventions, declined at an even more rapid pace.  There is a direct correlation between federal interventions and declines in outcomes.

 

Today, after 40 plus years of Federal Intervention Into State and Local Authority over public education, we have gone from #3 in the world for educational outcomes in public school to #28 in the world, trailing many third world countries, while spending more per capita than any other nation. The spending is not the problem. What the money is being spent on is the problem: too much bureaucracy and bureucrats, standardized tests, regulations, technologies, etc. and not enough spent on smaller schools and more competent teachers.  In some areas, over 60 percent of school employees are non-teachers. Duh????

 

The current problem in Tuscaloosa Schools is not confined to Tuscaloosa. This is a national problem and it is the most serious National Security Issue we have, and threatens the very existence of this nation. What has occurred in Tuscaloosa is not confined to Tuscaloosa.

 

The current public school system is the Best Definition that I can find for Failed Socialism and Failed Social Engineering.

 

Not only are the schools being hampered from teaching basic academic subjects, citizenship, responsibility and respect, and community standards, they are also being mandated to Brainwash our children with National Socialistic Agendas, and many of these National Agendas and Teachings go against Local Community Standards and Beliefs of the Citizens in the communities. The Social Engineering, Brainwashing, and Dumbing Down of America is a Direct Result of Federal Intervention and Socialism gone awry.

 

It is time that parents, teachers, and community leaders Just Say No to Federal Rules, Laws, and Mandates when these Rules, Laws, and Mandates are clearly Destroying Our Children, Communities and Nation.

 

So, of course, smaller community schools located in the communities where the children live is one step that should be implemented as soon as is possible.  No elementary or middle school should be any larger than 300 to 400 students with teacher-pupil ratios of 1 to 20, and that school should be required to teach basic academic subjects the old fashioned way by Having Children Do Academic Work with paper and pencils, and get computers and other gadgets out of the classrooms until about grade 8 competencies are achieved. After they achieve 8th grade competencies, then introduce computers and other Tools. Computers and Calculators are Tools, and should not be substituted as Teachers. These Tools Do Not Help The Child's Mind Develop, and in fact, do much more harm than good. Children already are exposed to too much TV, Computers, and Other Electronic Gadgets away from school.  We have so many computers and other gadgets in the schools now, that incompetent and illiterate teachers are able to mask their own incompetencies, because they let the children teach or babysit themselves on computers.  This kind of teaching and learning does not develop the mind, especially the part of the brain that deals with Reason and Logic. This part of the brain is developed by Doing, with Paper and Pencil operations such as Arithmetic, and also our children are losing or not learning basic skills such as writing, especially, cursive writing.  And, with Spell Check, and other Computer Tools, these same children are becoming Poor Spellers, and Also are not learning proper English and appropriate grammer, etc.

 

In short, we need to return to basics, and we also need to get All Standardized Testing Out of Our Schools. The only tests that need to be used are basic screening devices such as the Brigance Readiness screens to see what the student needs are. Standardized Testing always Lowers Standards, and we have been so busy Standardized Testing for the past 40 years, that now the Standard is so low that some High School Graduation Tests are based on 6th grade skills.  So many students were failing the tests that started out with only 8th grade skills (In Georgia, one of the first states to start Basic Skills Testing for High School Graduation in the 1990's, the test started out at 8th grade level, and so many students in high school were failing, that they re-wrote the test to 7th grade level, with almost as bad results, and finally, they lowered the Standard to 6th grade level as a way of making it look like schools were improving in graduation rates and student learning.) This has been a trend all over the country, and what Tuscaloosa faces today is being faced all over the country, and it is all a Direct Result of the Social Engineering and Directives from the U.S. Department of Education, which is the Enforcement Arm for National Teacher Unions and the government's Socialist Agenda.

 

The U.S. Department of Education should be abolished. Then that departments 200 billion dollar annual budget this year alone, could be put back where it belongs in the hands of Local Communities to Build Small Community Schools, and More Teachers, and Less Standardized Tests, Fewer Computers for elementary and middle schoolers, and Fewer Administrators and other Educational Bureaucrats.  The U.S. Department of Education is nothing more than an example of another Federal Agency or Department That was instituted ostensibly to Deal with a "perceived" social problem, and like all Agencies or Departments started to deal with "perceived" social problems, the Problems Grew worse in a direct correlation with Size, Expenditures, and Power of the Department.  This has also happened with the other so-called "Great Society" programs that started in the 1960's by Lyndon B. Johnson.  These So Called Great Society Programs have now squandered tens of trillions of dollars on The War on Poverty, and like all other problems that Federal Agencies and Departments are started to deal with, the problem grew much worse. And, besides the fact that the War On Poverty did not Decrease or End Poverty, it also destroyed family values, work ethics, and dignity and self respect, respect for others and respect for resources in those who became dependent of government and thus lost their own independence and ability to take care of one's self. This is a travesty and a great example ow how socialism works. This is what happens when you create a Government Agency or Department to deal with a "perceived" social problem, the problem not only does not improve or go away, the problem always grows worse, as the agency or department becomes it's own Empire, and like all Empires, these agencies and departments seek growth in size, expenditures and power, and in order to justify their Growth, Power, and Expenditures, They Have to Have More "perceived" victims to Serve, to justify their own existence. The U.S. Department of Education and their Mandates are the very reason that Tuscaloosa and every other community in America have the dismal public schools that they now have. And, what do their "experts" suggest?  "Doing More of The Same Things that Do Not Work, For Longer Periods of Time??  They suggest Longer School days, Longer School Weeks, Longer School Years. This is all complete nonsense.  Children already spend too much time away from home in public schools. It is not the time spent in schools that is causing the problems. It is the Agenda and Curriculum that they are being exposed to that is the problem.  More time needs to be spent in Actual Academic Instruction By Teachers who Also Have the Requisite Skills themselves to teach what it is that they should be teaching. Things like Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, Civic Responsibility and Respect for self, others and resources.  We now have public School Teachers who cannot teach elementary arithmetic because, they themselves, cannot do elementary arithmetic. This shows you how far down that We have Been Standardized By Socialism.

 

To take this country back on the road to prosperity, we have to take our children and schools back, and it needs to Start Now. Tell the Local, State, and Federal Bureaucrats NO, and tell them that You, the Community Are Taking Your children, your schools and your communities back. And, teachers who refuse to Teach according to Community Standards and refuse to teach Old Fashioned Academics, let them go. If their unions threaten law suits, tell them to SUE On Their Own Time, but in the meantime, hire Competent Teachers Who Can Actually Perform the Tasks that they are supposedly teaching. Get all the Political Correctness and other nonsense out of the schools completely. Teachers should be teaching Civic Responsibility and Not Their Own Political Leanings. Children's minds are impressionable, and they should not be brainwashed and propagandized to by Teachers promoting their Own Social or Political Agendas, which is what a vast majority of teachers are doing today. When teachers chastise children because of their parents political beliefs or moral beliefs, they are abusing your children. Emotional, intellectual and psycholgical abuse takes place in schools all over the country everyday by teachers who have an agenda and by teachers promoting the Social Agenda of the U.S. Department of Education and Teacher Unions.  This abuse is worse than physical abuse, because it is creating a nation of dumbed down and brainwashed citizens who grow up without the emotional, psychological and intellectual ability to compete, and these, my friends are the hopeless students who drop out, and even for the ones who do not drop out, they are not getting their educational, academic, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs met by these Federally Run and Mandated Schools.

 

Even if many students graduate, that does not mean that they have learned very much, it only means that they suffered through 12 plus years of psychological, emotional, and intellectual neglect and abuse. And, what is the new plan coming out of the U.S. Department of Education that has now eliminated every vestige of local and state control in public education? The Obama Dept. of Education is in the process of Mandating Pre-Schools down to age 4 and eventually down to age 2.  Do you really want the Federal Government to Yank your toddlers away from home and send them to Government Run Dumbing Down and Brainwashing Institutions in the guise of early childhood education.  No, the real aim is that the Federal Government does not want to Leave Even One Child Behind that is Not Brainwashed and Dumbed Down to grow up to be a good little Socialist Citizen.

 

This has been the Aim of Socialists for decades, and it all started in earnest with Lydon B. Johnson in the 1960', and has been expanding since.  Jimmy Carter and the U.S. Department of Education? And, now with Obama, this socialist plan to Completely Eradicate All Local and State Control is complete. And the next step in that is the Pre-School Movement to Force Parents to put their toddlers into the arms of the Nanny State.

 

If you love your children, your community, your liberty, freedom, rights and country, you need to Tell The Government NO, and Take Your Children, Schools, Communities, and Country Back.  It all starts in your own Home Town. All politics is local, and if you cannot take charge of your own town, how in the world do you think that you can influence the Federal Politicians and Bureaucrats who are being Bought and Paid for By Professional Lobbyists, and other Special Interest Groups who could care less what is happening to you, your community and your children?

 

m. jerome ennis, MAed

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

 

This will make you nervous




HOW LONG DOES THE USA HAVE?

This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. The sad
thing about it, you can see it coming.

I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting
to see it in print.. God help us, not that we deserve it.

How Long Do We Have?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new
constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at
the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the
Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government.'

'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters
discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public
treasury.'

'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who
promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result
that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy,
which is always followed by a dictatorship.'

'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the
beginning of history, has been about 200 years'.  'During those 200
years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacency to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage'

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul ,
Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000
Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Gor e: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won
was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great
country.
Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in
government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government
welfare...' Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between
the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of
democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already
having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal
invaders called illegal and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the
USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then delete this message; if you are not,
then Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at
stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

Thanks for reading.


 

Obama is just another Race Hustler.  He may present a 'kinder-gentler' version to the TV cameras, but a Race Hustler all the same.  The difference in this Big Time Race Hustler though, that separates him from those who are out there and have been out there, such as Jesse Jackson, Farakhan, Sharpton, his Pastor, Rev. Wright, and tohers is that OBAMA is trying to Hustle His Way Into The White House.  Americans, black and white, better open their eyes and minds and start Voting with Their Minds and not on Skin color.  Anyother candidate with Obama's equal credentials would not even be in this conversation right now.  He is there because the Race Hustling Media with Media stars such as another Race Hustler, Oprah Winfrey hustling him on that idiotic program of hers.  Wake Up America--Don't vote for this Dangerous Idiot.

jerome ennis in Alabama

Word to the Wise:  Don't be influenced by Fools!!!!!!!!!!Learn to think and learn for yourself.  The Truth Will Set You Free, at least in your own minds.  Turn the TV off, read some good books that Are Not On The Top Ten Best Seller List.  The Top Ten Best Seller List is created by the Same Buffoons Who Bring You TV, and It is All About Ratings and of course, THE MONEY!!!!!!!  Our Politicians Are Bought And Paid For By The Highest Bidders, and The Bidders Are All The Same One's So it is a Win-Win For the Contributors Because Their Man or Woman always wins.  After elected, The Politicians Owe and Owe their Big Contributors, and You and I, the Hardworking Taxpayer, Go and Go To Work to Pay The Taxes For the Buffoons To Squander, and We, The People, Have ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSIBLE REPRESENTATIION.~~~~~~~~~~~

We can debate politics.  We can debate Family Values.  We can Debate, Debate, and Debate, but it matters little how much we Debate if we do not Also Take Action.  Many parents are taking their Children Back From and Protecting Their Children from The State.  They Homeschool.  It is truly sad that parents see a need to keep their children home to protect them from abuse and indoctrination by a Public School System that has been totally destroyed in the past 40 years since the U.S. Government took the schools over and have firmly instituted Social Engineering that teaches all sorts of Perversions, and at the same time, cannot educated in academics, and allow emotional, psychological, physical and sexual abuse to go on day in and day out while officially telling parents that these things do not go on.  So, no more debates about what Congress or Politicians can do.  They do not have the Guts to Suggest Abolishing the U.S. Dept. of Education where all the nonsense gets Passed on to Local Schools.  The U.S. Dept. Of Indoctrinataion blackmails states by "suggestions" with the catch, "if you do not take our recommendation, We withhold your funds."  This Agency ought to be the first to go when we take our country back and rid it of bloated bureaucracy that has bankrupted us morally, intellectually, spiritually, and now financially at the tune of Ten Trillion Dollars.

This Texas Fascist move is typical of Texas, generally.  Does anybody remember the Waco Massacre?  Probably not, we, in America, have a short attention span and an even shorter memory as the media "excites and incites" us on a day by day and minute by minute basis of doses of the most "current" gossip.  One minute, it is Michael Jackson until somebody else does something to take the attention away.  Maybe Britney.  Maybe Whitney.  Then a Waco happens where the Feds and state of Texas Authorities declare that David Koresh is Satan and is abusing children.  So, to save the children from this Satanic Cult, the state murders them all to save them.  What an incredible idea?  Now, a decade or so later, the Gestapo is at it again.  This time, the state's so-called Child Protective Services, in typical knee jerk reaction that these type state agencies all over the country are known for, acting on an anonymous tip from somebody  who had never been in that community.  Or so, that is what the Texas authorities claimed.  They had to make up some so-called "probable cause" and this lie worked as good as any.  If it had not been the girl in Colorado who was known to have been mentally deranged, it would have been something else.  They can manufacture any so-called "anonymous" caller at will.  Whatever happened to evidence-based indictments?  No, these Social Welfare Agencies have been granted too much power to do harm to families without a shred of evidence.  If these so called Child Protective Services folks cared about the well-being of Texas children, all they would need to do is go  to any public housing area and they would find unwed children having babies by multiple partners and the mothers nor the children being born to children would have a clue who the daddy is, and these same unwed teen mothers are all on welfare.  So, Texas, and the other 49 states who have these Gestapo agencies that supposedly want to Save The Children from neglect and abuse, start in the public housing areas that you help get something for nothing.  Take kids away from crack mothers and crack dealing daddies who never support the children they bear.  At least these so-called polygamist folks know who daddy is and do not ask taxpayers to support them.

Jerome Ennis in Alabama

Larry, you better hope that these Baptist's that you obviously do not like, keep being Americans, as they are usually the one's going to work everyday, because their faith teaches the work ethic.  You, also better hope, that we elect somebody someday who will return this country to it's senses and wakes up and realizes that "There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch."  These Liberals who have taken over the U.S. Congress and Created This Socialist Bureaucray, has bankrupted the country, Financially, with a ten trillion dollar debt, bankrupted us spiritually by punishing and prosecuting Christians for profession of their faith, while telling Muslims they can practice their religion at public expense as we build them foot washing pools, etc., bankrupted us morally by telling children to disobey their parents and turn to the government for parenting, bankrupted us academically, as the U.S. Dept. of Education has dumbed the children down to the lowest common denominator.  This list could go and on, but any sensible and rational person knows of what I speak here.  Better wake up and realize that in the Near Future, the Ten Trillion dollar Deficit which is owed to Communist countries and others who hate this country, exect Repayment.  It is your Liberal Establishment and It's worthless bureaucratic Agencies and Departments that have gotten us into this mess.  And, all Obama and these other Socialists promise, Is More Handouts For Nothing.  That is why blacks and other Know_Nothing Liberals vote for him.  He promises more handouts and expects to pay for them by extracting taxes from workers like myself and what they cannot collect in taxes, they plan to pay for by borrowing more money from our enemies, who know they can conquer us by Bank Rupting Us Financially.  They have done a masterful job so far, because these Greedy Know Nothings that run our government, have no alleigance to anything except Power and Money.  Not all blacks support Obama, but a great many do for the wrong reasons.  Obama's problem is not that he is black.  There are many great black Americans who love this country, but they do not vote for Obama.  The Socialist Programs that started With LBJ and the so-called Great Society Programs, was the beginning of the end for Black Families and their value system which was loyalty to family, christian values, a work ethic, and decency, generally.  When you turn people into Wards of The State, which is what Welfare did to this country, you take away their dignity, self respect, and pride.  It sounded like a good idea at the time, but as the old saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."  Was it the aim of these Socialists such as LBJ to destroy the American Fabric of a Work Ethic, Good Education, and Self Respect and dignity??This writer believes that it was and here we are 40 years later and it has succeeded.  Obama would be the Final Nail in America's coffin.  Pray that Obama does not win.  You who vote for him will be at the mercy of what is to come too.  Use your Rational Mind, and not the Emotional One that Obama so cleverly preys on.  Note:  Preys on, not Prays on.  Obama Prays to Mohammed and Preys on you innocent and ignorant voters who support him.
Good Day, this writer has to go to work now, and pay taxes into the bottomless pit of government mis-spending.  Obama needs the money to promise to welfare recipients who are his voter base.

We cannot continue to pick the lesser of two evils everytime we go to the polls.  The Dems bash the Repubs and The Repubs Bash the Dems when vying for our votes.  Then, they get elected, and nothing ever changes for the better.  They all just continue with the same old policies and the creation of more worthless and wasteful bureaucracy that has already bankrupted the country to the tune of ten trillion dollars, which we now owe to our enemies, the Chinese, Middle Eastern Countries, and Economic enemy, Japan and others.  We have to take our country back starting in local, state and federal elections.  That is why I support the Libertarian Party, because is is a viable option to the One-Party system we now have.  We claim to have two parties, but get real, it is just as George C. Wallace stated in 1968 when he was fed up with the Washington D.C. dictatorship that he witnessed and experienced, and said the following, (paraphrased by this writer) "Democrats and Republicans, there is not a dime's worth of difference between them.  You are voting for tweedle dee or tweedle dumb.  It really makes not difference which you vote for, they are both basically the same."  This election cycle proves that point out exactly.  It is worse today than it was 40 years ago when Wallace made that bold statement.  Of course, a nut case ended Wallace's career and campaign which was powerful and could have been a turning point in this country.  That same nut case was recently released from a prison in Maryland.  And, of course we all know that Maryland is a socialist state already being directly linked at the hip with the D.C. establishment. After Wallace was gone, we kind of fell back into the same old routines and things have worsened exponentially since then.  It is time to take our country back, by beginning to take our communities, schools, towns, couties and states, and then on to Washington to make real changes there and give sovereignty back to the citizens of this country.  Vote Libertarian and Happy Memorial Day Vets and Soldiers, present and past.