Little Man so spic and span...

[JohnC]

"Where were you when the planes hit the towers?"

This is what Larry King asked John Kerry during his interview with Hanoi John and his wife. It's kinda surprising, considering all the hard complaints concerning President Bush's actions for seven minutes following his notification. Sounds like a typical reaction to me.



KING: Where were you on 9/11?

HEINZ KERRY: You know, it's very interesting. I landed at National Airport less than 12 hours before, coming from Pennsylvania, where I was doing a prescription drugs thing -- meeting. And I came in from Pittsburgh, landed at National, and that's the last time I landed at National for quite a while.

KING: How'd you hear about it?

HEINZ KERRY: I was at home in Washington. I had just come in and I got a call...

KERRY: I think I called.

HEINZ KERRY: And they said, look at the TV. I looked at the TV and I couldn't believe it.

KING: Where were you?

KERRY: I was in the Capitol. We'd just had a meeting -- we'd just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle's office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation.

[stetto]

Gosh, it sounds to me like a goodly number of people in our government just sat there dumbfounded for more than seven minutes, considering the time between plane 1 and plane 3...

[JohnC]

Dawgone... I'm not the only one with that thought!

Me? I had just stepped out of the shower when the wife yelled somethng about planes crashing. I went into the office with a towel wrapped around my manly:D body and stood there while the second plane simply flew smack-dab into the tower. Just like Mr. Bush, I never said a word to anyone.

Maybe I shoulda called out the National Guard - oh, yeah, that's what the governess is supposed to do, right? JohnC

[ctdahle]

I don't beleive Mr. Kerry has ever said a critical word about Bush's instantaneous response to the planes on 9/11. That ole W looks like a deer in the headlights on tape is irrelevant. It's his long term response that sucks.

We were attacked by a group of Al Qeada terrorists lead by Osama bin Ladin, and the proper response was to go after him, but we left that job half done.

Mr. Bush suckered the American public into backing his personal grudge against a petty ante dictator with a cardboard saber and delusions of grandeur who wanted his neighbors to think he had some real firepower.

His further response was to force through a government "wish list" of restrictions on the freedoms and liberties of the american people. Whip up public hysteria, alienate the international community and feed thousands of our young men into the meat grinder.

While the American public was distracted by the cry of war, he erased the balanced budget his predecessors of BOTH parties finally reached after 20 years of belt tightening, creating a future tax burden for our children and their children.

Further, he has cut funding to the very programs that might have helped those children work their way out of his mess by making college all but prohibitively expensive for the children of the middle class.

He forced through the "No child left behind" act, which would be better titled the "Screw the Poor and Close Thier Schools" act, thus assuring that there will be a future population of unskilled, uneducated and disenfranchised toilet cleaners.

Most frighteningly, he has managed to convince middle class voters that their little tax decrease of $400 will make up for:
College tuitions that will exceed $50,000 annually by 2020.
Publicly owned parks, forests, monuments and lands that will only be accessible for a fee.
"privatized" public services including courts that will only be available to the wealthy.
A prescription drug "benefit" that benefits only a limited segement of the aging population and encourages the drug companies to past its costs on to the rest of us.
Cuts in public health funding that pass the healthcare costs of the uninsured on to the shrinking pool of insured workers.
Approval of federal labor policies that allow corporations to discontinue health care benefits to union retirees.

And the list goes on.

Not that I care, I just raise my hourly fee again and keep voting Republican .

[JohnC]

Ya know, Chris... I could almost hope that Kerry wins so the idiots who are on a hate fest for Bush will see first hand just what they're in for! Why do I get this feeling that many "Bush Haters" are simply parroting the popular angst against him when they really don't know what OR why they're doing it

No, I may not vote for him, I'm waiting to see how much (more or less) of a circus the Republican Convention is compared to the Democratic fiasco I attempted to watch last month. In the meantime, I'll agree with anyone that he certainly has screwed the pooch as far as the illegal invasion is concerned. Other than that, I do believe that Hanoi John Kerry will mess thngs up even worse, and much faster!

I almost wish it would happen... but not quite!

Concerning whether Kerry made even the slightes comment about Bush's reaction, I don't know either, nor do I care about anything that traitor says ! My point was simply to show that few, if anybody, can say what they would do under the same circumstances - it's on the same plane as "can you or can't you pull the trigger on the thug charging you with a knife?" only maybe not quite as heavy. JohnC

[Cablemender]

If all these programs are so bad, then why aren't the Dems coming up with any better ones? I find it interesting that Bush offered up his position being for school vouchers (for kids who's schools and teachers failed them, also ensuring there would be a future generation of garbage collectors and low-skilled workers) and accepted the Democratic compromise that is now the school-closing part of "No Child Left Behind." So, in the spirit of compromise, he gets the blame for adopting what are largely Democratic ideas on how education should work.

Clinton was elected with a campaign promise (in 92) to bring a national heath care system and a prescription drug program for the elderly into play. He delivered neither, and no one applies any blame to him. Bush signs a bill that he admits is far from perfect, but better than NO benefit, and he's the big bad wolf. Not a single democrat introduced a bill to provide prescription drug benefits to anyone - so where do they get off being critical of the existing bill after the fact? Where were their ammendments full of corrective measures for the existing bill? Nowhere. Do you suppose they are waiting for control fo the White House again before making any attempt to fix what they see as broken?

The courts are already beyond the reach of the average citizen; how many times have you cited examples of the cost of raising a case to the federal appellate level running, what was it, like 6 figures? The average Joe can't afford that now

But what really baffles me is why would you raise your hourly rate? The rest of the post seems dedicated to the idea that it's the PRESIDENT who has to solve all your problems.. and here you are trying to fix them on your own. Is that even legal anymore?

[stetto]

Heh heh heh, I had to raise my hourly rates as well; supply and demand. I have almost four months of work to get done in the next two. The economy's never been better for this "slob at the bottom"...And that's funny too, because the county I live in has the highest per capita welfare entitlement whores in the state of Minn., and I'm nowhere near the cities...

And being not impressed with GW that much at all, I agree with Tom 100%; Where the 'ell are the the Dems and their solutions? Ya wanna complain, fine...Just qualify your hatespeak with alternatives and SOLUTIONS...

[JohnC]

I've already admitted I didn't watch the entire Democratic Convention, so I could be wrong, here, but I'm pretty sure that at least one of the media talking heads mentioned that Kerry PROMISED he had a plan to fix EVERYTHING . . .but it was classified and he wasn't going to tell JUST ANYONE until he took the Presidential Oath of Office.

I wonder. . . was that a threat or a promise? JohnC

[Ricfly52]

Oh geez John, that is so scary to me that Kerry doesn't want to reveal his plans to fix everything until he is in office. Here in Nevada RINO Gov. Kenny Guinn(read casino spokes model), said the very same thing after he jumped ship from the democratic party to become a Republican in name only, in order to get elected. He is now aligned with all the state dems. and they passed a billion dollar tax hike, the biggest ever, and state constitutionaly illegal I might add. Personaly my state tax burden will go up 35% next year when you figure all the added fees, gasoline tax hike, and raise of property taxes.
If Kerry makes it into office expect much higher taxes even for guys like me on the low end of the stick. Expect renewed attacks on the second amendment, and possibly the loss of our right to defend ourselves. Plan on millions more acres of our public lands to be locked up into wilderness, and National recreation areas. Just those three items will stop me from voting for Kerry. No Bush hasn't made me feel all fuzzy inside especially on the border issue. But as usual I will choose the lesser of two evils. I hate voting that way. But vote I will.

[JohnC]

I lived in Las Vegas when I was in the third -fourth grades. For some reason I have been under the inpression that Nevada didn't have state taxes such as California and Arizona due to the gambling. I guess I was wrong.

But you're right about Kerry. If he gets elected we can count on his instituting so many Presidential proclamations that it'll make BJ look like a piker! By the time he gets done we'll be lucky to be able to WALK to our flying fields! JohnC

[RetNavySuppo]

Hey, you think the Nevada governor is bad? Then you should get a load of our Georgia governor, good ol' Sonny Perdue. Last year we had a state budget shortfall due to decreased federal funding. So being a good Republican, who would rather cut essential services than ask the taxpayers to actually pay for what they get (God forbid!!!!!!!!), good ol' Sonny Boy made some substantial cuts in educational funding.

Wait, it gets better. This cut in educational funding came AFTER it was announced that Georgia came in DEAD LAST, 50th out of 50 states, in statewide SAT scores.

Way to go, Sonny Boy!!!

[Ricfly52]

Hey John, you are right, there is no state tax in nevada, but they get us with increased fees on utility bills, and license fees and fee, fee , fee. Then our property tax goes up 100%. geez give me a break. Thet can kiss my a$$. I am getting ready to leave here forever!! ;D ;D ;D

Rick

[Ricfly52]

RNS, I hear what you are saying loud and clear. But what cracks me up here in the Clark County school district, is that the more money they throw at the district, the worse it gets. My wife is a teacher here. This year the tax base for the school district went up 35%. The administration level empolyees, that get close to six figure saleries, got raises. The teachers got nothing. The student programs got nothing. Go figure. And our SAT scores are close to yours there in Gerogia. I believe we are ranked 48th. Heck if they get just a little more money from us tax payers here in Nevada, maybe we can claim your fifthieth ranking!! ;D

[JohnC]

It's the same all over. The new Superintendant of the Douglas School District is a woman who worked for the same company as I did when I first came to Douglas. She was in charge of the Estimating Department and constantly sluffed her work onto Me and my co-workers in the Manufacturing Engineering Department .

About six months after I started there, my boss called me up to the President's office. It seems that their estimator had decided (thatday) to go back to teaching (her degree was in Physical Education) and had called them up at lunch time and said she wouldn't be coming back. I was asked to see what I could do with the position. What a MESS! It took me three days to just call all the potential customers to see if their RFQ's were still valid.

To make a long story short, knowing how un-organized and flakey she has been practically everytime I've seen her, I feel sorry for the students, they'll be the ones who suffer while she gets a new car. JohnC

[Cablemender]

When my son started high school this year, the administration made a huge deal out of this new ID card they have to wear all during the school day.

They made the cards and issued what they could, but ran out of lanyards. My son's class was one of the ones who hadn't gotten their's yet. Today he came home and I asked him if he'd heard anything on the ID cards. He said, "Yeah, they got in the lanyards, but before they could pass all the cards out, they had to recall every one of them for the Freshman and Sophomore classes. A student pointed out to them that our state, part of the school name, is not spelled 'Flordia'."

D'ya think we might have outsourced this job to Georgia?

[RetNavySuppo]

Well Tom, since the Supreme Court is already used to having to help your state solve its problems, perhaps they could get involved again and simply change the spelling of your state. There, problem solved!

Hey, I want to rant more about our state government.

About a year ago, the EPA came into Atlanta and condemned the entire city sewer system. Everytime it rained, whole neighborhoods would be inundated with raw sewerage. This had been happening for several years, but last year some well-to-do neighborhoods got stunk up as well. Thus, the involvement of our Federal government.

The EPA told Atlanta it had to completely rebuild its sewer system - the old one was beyond just repairing. If not, the EPA would start levying heavy fines against Atlanta. The estimated cost is $3 billion which means it will probably cost $6 billion. Atlanta said it didn't have the money. The EPA asked where was the money that Atlanta was supposed to be collecting and setting aside EACH YEAR for this eventuality.

Well, well, well, well! This question opened a whole can of stinky worms. An investigation discovered that Atlanta water and sewer rates had been kept artificially low for years in order to curry political favor with the voters (hmmm, where have we seen that before?). Additionally, entire voting districts hadn't been paying ANY property taxes for a decade or more. These were sweetheart deals to deliver votes in past elections. They were supposed to be temporary but I guess someone just "forgot" to reinstitute these property taxes.

The good people of Atlanta came up with a very short list of solutions to the problem:

1. Have the Federal government pick up the tab.

or-

2. Have the state, as a whole, pick up the tab.

or-

3. A combination of 1 and 2.

Perhaps my eyeglasses are dirty, but does anyone see in that list of proposed solutions any mention of the CITIZENS OF ATLANTA contributing to solve the problem THEY THEMSELVES CAUSED? I thought not.

What is happening? Governor Perdue is having the whole state pick up half the tab. Being a loyal Republican and following the example of our Great Leader, he is loathe to raise taxes to pay for it. So he will simply borrow the money and let the next generation of Georgians worry about paying it back.

The other half of the tab is Atlanta's problem. Now, water and sewer rates not only have to rise to the level that actually represents the true cost of the service, but they also have to increase further to pay for their share of the rebuilding costs. Of course, they seem to have forgotten about the reserves they should be setting aside for the next sewer system after that. So now, rich and poor Atlanta residents alike are all up in arms about these new, much higher rates - as if someone was picking on them. I guess they think that new water and sewer systems simply spontaneously generate.

Remember the voting districts that weren't paying any property taxes? Well, they are now. But instead of being grateful that they don't have to make up the taxes they didn't pay all these years, they are going berserk over their "unfair tax increase". Sheesh!

There, I feel better now.

Wait, one more thought:

SCREW ATLANTA!!!

[stetto]

One of the main reasons we left Arizona was the way the education system is set up. Only two states behind RetNav's, we had all kinds of trouble with the schools and found out it was just going to get worse...

...The problem is that the fox got in the henhouse and the farmer's still asleep (in a drunken stupor?). Administration pay is reaching ludicrous levels, yet though the public has been made aware of it, and has "mentioned" their dismay to the powers that be, nothing is being done. Far as I'm concerned it is called theft. A superintendant in Paradise Valley (Scottsdale) a number of years ago was hired in the wake of public fiscal outrage, to the tune of $650,000/yr...One of the reasons for her being hired? (Now get this) To bring skyrocketing administration costs down and streamline the non-teaching beauracracy that was stuffing money down it's throat...

Minnesota is heading the same direction--50% of state tax revenues go to education--But program and budget cuts are the big fad, because funds are being diverted to administration (salaries). There is something terribly wrong with this picture, and you'd think that it's too obvious to NOT do something about...But I guess that people want their butts wiped and their noses blown for them anymore, and we're all waiting for someone else to fix this mess.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Heh, sounds like Nebraskas solution to school funding and test scores. Nebraska has a quite a few small rural schools, who do generally better than the larger schools in scores. Money for eductation is tight, esspecially in larger school disctricts so they decide to combine all the rural schools they can with larger districts, it means bussing some kids over 2 hours.

Bingo problem solved right? No small schools to use up money and all the new smart kids will bring up the test scores.

If I had hair I would have pulled it out by now. I don't think there is anything that can be made better by blindly throwing money into it, except maybe a fire.

[ctdahle]

Education is just generally a bleep up anyway. The federal government should just keep the hell out of it, and for that matter, maybe the state should too. Leave it to local school districts entirely.

Here in Colorado the votors passed "amendment 23" which was supposed to force the legislature to annually increase school funding. Now the legislature claims that this is bankrupting the rest of the state budget.

Funny thing is that in the three years the amendment has been in place, Colorado school districts have annually had to lay off teachers and forgo cost of living increases. One wonders where the money is going.

Probably to bureaucrats at the Colorado Department of Education, because as Eric especially might be interested to know, the Colorado Department of Education frequently points to ARIZONA as an example of how schools should be run.

At my former school, the state, citing less than adequate progress among the schools lowest readers (based on the CSAP exam I have talked about before) forced the school to abandon four years of intensive curriculum redevelopment (which had been guided by high priced and highly paid consultants provided BY the state) and instead purchase an entirely new math, reading and language curriculum, k-5, all from the same textbook company, Houghton Mifflin.

The NEW Houghton Mifflin reading and language curriculum, certified by the state as complying with the NCLB, replaces the "old" and "failed" curriculum which was purchased just four years ago.

And who do you think published the OLD and FAILING curriculum?...Houghton Mifflin!)

[Ricfly52]

Education is just generally a f**k up anyway. The federal government should just keep the hell out of it, and for that matter, maybe the state should too. Leave it to local school districts entirely.

Now Chris that is just what I was thinking! My wife being a teacher, I oft' put on my old steel pot, and a Flak Jac, ;D whenever I get on a rant about the local school district, or even, as you have described, the general messed up way education is done anyway. My kids have already fought their way through the system. Out of four I had one that got lost. He did not graduate from high school. This has been a big heart break and guilt trip for me. But I look at the Clark county school district here in Nevada, and I wonder how any kids get to graduation. It is so fu(#ed up that is is almost undiscribable. It is FUBAR to say the least.