Good News...We can get a FREE E-book (pdf) copy of the book....
Dumbing Down of America! Get it HERE!
Attached is a video clip of the Author, Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
during an interview (don't know the date).
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
I've Chosen An Issue ..Compulsory Education
Through a member of a social website I belong to, I discovered a website that has infuriated me and encouraged me at the same time. The website is:
JohnTaylorGatto.com
Nothing about that name would indicate the treasure of (free) information provided on the site. There is an entire book titled: Underground History of American Education. You can purchase the book, but if you are short on funds and long on time (as I am), you can read every word online or save to your computer for offline reading. Along with the book is a summary of a documentary film they are trying to produce. The film is in 3 parts and a total of 6 hours. It's title is:
The Fourth Purpose
Part I - Whats Wrong With Our Schools?- Will examine the troubling anomalies of our current system.
Part II - How Did It Get That Way? - Will penetrate the untold history of our schools.
Part III - What Can We Do? - Will survey the many extraordinary alternatives available to students, parents, and teachers.
The pages telling the above information were copyrighted 2003 and they were seeking contributions to help produce the films, so I'm thinking that they still have not been completed and released. But...........
I did a search and found a site that did have an excellent 16 minute promo of the series.
Check it out!!!
What's Wrong With Our Schools? -- Will examine the troubling anomalies of our current system.
JohnTaylorGatto.com
Nothing about that name would indicate the treasure of (free) information provided on the site. There is an entire book titled: Underground History of American Education. You can purchase the book, but if you are short on funds and long on time (as I am), you can read every word online or save to your computer for offline reading. Along with the book is a summary of a documentary film they are trying to produce. The film is in 3 parts and a total of 6 hours. It's title is:
The Fourth Purpose
Part I - Whats Wrong With Our Schools?- Will examine the troubling anomalies of our current system.
Part II - How Did It Get That Way? - Will penetrate the untold history of our schools.
Part III - What Can We Do? - Will survey the many extraordinary alternatives available to students, parents, and teachers.
The pages telling the above information were copyrighted 2003 and they were seeking contributions to help produce the films, so I'm thinking that they still have not been completed and released. But...........
I did a search and found a site that did have an excellent 16 minute promo of the series.
Check it out!!!
What's Wrong With Our Schools? -- Will examine the troubling anomalies of our current system.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
David Broder OpEd on RNC
The GOP Faces the Blue Wall
By David S. Broder
Sunday, February 8, 2009; B07
It was not all that long ago that political reporters were writing about "the Republican lock" on the White House. From 1972 to 1988, from Richard Nixon's reelection through George H.W. Bush's victory over Michael Dukakis, 24 states supported the GOP nominee each time.
By the end of the run, those states could deliver 219 electoral votes, leaving only 51 others to make up a majority.
But now the Republican electoral lock has been replaced and surpassed by "the blue wall." That's the term Ronald Brownstein, the political director of Atlantic Media Co., applies to the Democrats' advantage.
In an important article in National Journal last month, Brownstein notes that 18 states and the District of Columbia have voted Democratic at least five times in a row, supporting Democrats from Bill Clinton through Barack Obama. Those states -- concentrated in the Northeast and the upper Midwest and on the Pacific Coast -- provide 248 electoral votes, 29 more than the old Republican lock and more than 90 percent of the electoral college majority.
Democrats also hold at least 33 of the 36 Senate seats from those states (with the Minnesota race still undecided), 12 of the 18 governorships, and the vast majority of House and legislative seats. The wall appears to be solid.
But as one who is more impressed with the volatility of American politics, especially in this age of lightly held or nonexistent party loyalties, I am skeptical of terms like "electoral lock" or "blue wall."
Still, if real-world confirmation of Brownstein's thesis were needed, the Republican National Committee furnished it on Jan. 30 when it elected Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, as the first African American to hold that post.
It was the clearest possible signal that the GOP realizes it must escape the shackles of its ideologically binding Southern strategy and compete in a more diverse, pragmatic and intellectually challenging environment.
I have written before about the way the election losses of 2006 and 2008 left the House and Senate Republicans even more dependent on those elected from Southern states. The attrition in the Northeast, Midwest and West has been heavy, and ever since Trent Lott and Newt Gingrich started the trend in 1994, the national party has spoken more and more with a Southern drawl.
Brownstein noted that several of the 18 states in the blue wall had been part of the earlier Republican lock. California, Illinois, New Jersey and Vermont switched sides, in part as a reaction against a Republican Party dominated by the South and defined by its conservative positions on abortion, immigration, stem-cell research and the teaching of evolution.
The states that are part of the blue wall have distinctive characteristics. As Brownstein wrote, they "combine large numbers of well-educated, affluent and less religious whites with substantial numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, including sizable immigrant populations."
They rank high in the proportion of college graduates and residents who are foreign-born, and their median income tops the national average. They lag in church attendance. Every one of those traits makes them less receptive to the message being offered by most Republicans.
Maryland, where Steele built his political base, and the District, where he has practiced law, are building blocks of the blue wall. After losing a Senate race in 2006, Steele understands how great a disadvantage the party label is in places like his home. He is pro-life, as are most Republicans. But his message to his party is to broaden its appeal and to raise its sights. When Steele defeated the former Republican chairman of Lee Atwater's and Strom Thurmond's South Carolina, the ancestral home of the Southern strategy, in the final round of voting for the RNC chairmanship, it sent a dramatic signal of change from the old ways and the old alignments.
It will obviously take much more than that to put the GOP into a position to challenge the blue wall -- and the hard fights all lie ahead, in the primaries for candidates in 2010 and 2012 and in the policy debates within the Senate and House GOP caucuses.
Clearly, Republicans have to change if they are going to climb that wall.
By David S. Broder
Sunday, February 8, 2009; B07
It was not all that long ago that political reporters were writing about "the Republican lock" on the White House. From 1972 to 1988, from Richard Nixon's reelection through George H.W. Bush's victory over Michael Dukakis, 24 states supported the GOP nominee each time.
By the end of the run, those states could deliver 219 electoral votes, leaving only 51 others to make up a majority.
But now the Republican electoral lock has been replaced and surpassed by "the blue wall." That's the term Ronald Brownstein, the political director of Atlantic Media Co., applies to the Democrats' advantage.
In an important article in National Journal last month, Brownstein notes that 18 states and the District of Columbia have voted Democratic at least five times in a row, supporting Democrats from Bill Clinton through Barack Obama. Those states -- concentrated in the Northeast and the upper Midwest and on the Pacific Coast -- provide 248 electoral votes, 29 more than the old Republican lock and more than 90 percent of the electoral college majority.
Democrats also hold at least 33 of the 36 Senate seats from those states (with the Minnesota race still undecided), 12 of the 18 governorships, and the vast majority of House and legislative seats. The wall appears to be solid.
But as one who is more impressed with the volatility of American politics, especially in this age of lightly held or nonexistent party loyalties, I am skeptical of terms like "electoral lock" or "blue wall."
Still, if real-world confirmation of Brownstein's thesis were needed, the Republican National Committee furnished it on Jan. 30 when it elected Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, as the first African American to hold that post.
It was the clearest possible signal that the GOP realizes it must escape the shackles of its ideologically binding Southern strategy and compete in a more diverse, pragmatic and intellectually challenging environment.
I have written before about the way the election losses of 2006 and 2008 left the House and Senate Republicans even more dependent on those elected from Southern states. The attrition in the Northeast, Midwest and West has been heavy, and ever since Trent Lott and Newt Gingrich started the trend in 1994, the national party has spoken more and more with a Southern drawl.
Brownstein noted that several of the 18 states in the blue wall had been part of the earlier Republican lock. California, Illinois, New Jersey and Vermont switched sides, in part as a reaction against a Republican Party dominated by the South and defined by its conservative positions on abortion, immigration, stem-cell research and the teaching of evolution.
The states that are part of the blue wall have distinctive characteristics. As Brownstein wrote, they "combine large numbers of well-educated, affluent and less religious whites with substantial numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, including sizable immigrant populations."
They rank high in the proportion of college graduates and residents who are foreign-born, and their median income tops the national average. They lag in church attendance. Every one of those traits makes them less receptive to the message being offered by most Republicans.
Maryland, where Steele built his political base, and the District, where he has practiced law, are building blocks of the blue wall. After losing a Senate race in 2006, Steele understands how great a disadvantage the party label is in places like his home. He is pro-life, as are most Republicans. But his message to his party is to broaden its appeal and to raise its sights. When Steele defeated the former Republican chairman of Lee Atwater's and Strom Thurmond's South Carolina, the ancestral home of the Southern strategy, in the final round of voting for the RNC chairmanship, it sent a dramatic signal of change from the old ways and the old alignments.
It will obviously take much more than that to put the GOP into a position to challenge the blue wall -- and the hard fights all lie ahead, in the primaries for candidates in 2010 and 2012 and in the policy debates within the Senate and House GOP caucuses.
Clearly, Republicans have to change if they are going to climb that wall.
Liberal Media out to crucify Michael Steele
POLITICS
New RNC chief accused of misusing money during 2006 campaign
THE WASHINGTON POST
Sunday, February 08, 2009
WASHINGTON — A former campaign adviser for Michael Steele told federal prosecutors that Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were not performed.
The allegation is one of several made by Alan Fabian, who was the finance chairman for the campaign, that are outlined in a confidential court document. Fabian offered the information in March as he sought leniency during plea negotiations on unrelated fraud charges. Prosecutors gave him no credit for cooperation when he was sentenced in October.
Federal agents have contacted Steele's sister in recent days, a spokesman for Steele said.
Steele spokesman Curt Anderson said the allegations are false. "It's from, what, a convicted felon? And it has no substantiation in fact," he said.
Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, has twice been fined for missing campaign finance filing deadlines during elections.
The U.S. attorney's office inadvertently sent the document, a defense sentencing memo, to The Washington Post after the newspaper requested the prosecution's sentencing memorandum.
U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein declined to comment. Fabian could not be reached. The Post corroborated some details of Fabian's claims, but others were disputed by people involved.
Fabian pointed to a February 2007 payment by Steele's campaign of more than $37,000 to Brown Sugar Unlimited, run by Steele's sister, Monica Turner. Campaign records list the expense as for "catering/web services." Turner filed papers to dissolve the company 11 months before the payment was received.
On Friday, Turner declined to describe any services she provided to the campaign. Steele lost the election to Democrat Ben Cardin.
Anderson said Turner "did a lot of media stuff" for the campaign. He provided a copy of an almost $15,000 invoice for catering services for events in October 2006 and July 2007. The invoice was dated December 2006, a discrepancy Anderson said was a typographical error.
New RNC chief accused of misusing money during 2006 campaign
THE WASHINGTON POST
Sunday, February 08, 2009
WASHINGTON — A former campaign adviser for Michael Steele told federal prosecutors that Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were not performed.
The allegation is one of several made by Alan Fabian, who was the finance chairman for the campaign, that are outlined in a confidential court document. Fabian offered the information in March as he sought leniency during plea negotiations on unrelated fraud charges. Prosecutors gave him no credit for cooperation when he was sentenced in October.
Federal agents have contacted Steele's sister in recent days, a spokesman for Steele said.
Steele spokesman Curt Anderson said the allegations are false. "It's from, what, a convicted felon? And it has no substantiation in fact," he said.
Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, has twice been fined for missing campaign finance filing deadlines during elections.
The U.S. attorney's office inadvertently sent the document, a defense sentencing memo, to The Washington Post after the newspaper requested the prosecution's sentencing memorandum.
U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein declined to comment. Fabian could not be reached. The Post corroborated some details of Fabian's claims, but others were disputed by people involved.
Fabian pointed to a February 2007 payment by Steele's campaign of more than $37,000 to Brown Sugar Unlimited, run by Steele's sister, Monica Turner. Campaign records list the expense as for "catering/web services." Turner filed papers to dissolve the company 11 months before the payment was received.
On Friday, Turner declined to describe any services she provided to the campaign. Steele lost the election to Democrat Ben Cardin.
Anderson said Turner "did a lot of media stuff" for the campaign. He provided a copy of an almost $15,000 invoice for catering services for events in October 2006 and July 2007. The invoice was dated December 2006, a discrepancy Anderson said was a typographical error.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Republicans as Democrats
Feb. 4, 2009
Republicans as Democrats, Part II
By Thomas Sowell
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In an era when so many people seem to be focused on "the first" of any group to do something, maybe it was not so surprising when someone on television pointed out the first Australian to play in a Super Bowl.
After all the hoopla over Barack Obama's becoming the first person of his complexion to become President, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be a small echo of that when Michael Steele became the first black head of the Republican National Committee.
For those of us who are still so old-fashioned as to be concerned about someone's ability to do the job, the question about Michael Steele is whether he can pick up the shattered pieces of the Republicans and put them together again to form a winning party. That is going to a whale of a job, for anybody of any complexion, "gender" or whatever.
As a political candidate, the question about Michael Steele would be the usual ones about his ideology, his track record in office and the like.
As chairman of a political party, however, the question is whether Michael Steele can represent that party to the public. This is especially important when the party is out of power and has neither a President in the White House nor a leader commanding a majority in either House of Congress.
One of the huge and perennial handicaps of the Republicans is that they seldom have anybody who can articulate their case to the public. It is hard to win the White House with candidates like Bob Dole and John McCain.
That was why Governor Sarah Palin was such a sensation in arousing the grassroots Republicans. She could talk!
Try to name five articulate Republicans. Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln come to mind. After that, you have to rack your brain. Newt Gingrich has been good at the low-key, understated kind of discussion that a pr
ofessor — which he once was — conducts around a seminar table.
But the rough and tumble of politics is not a seminar. Bill Clinton completely out-talked Gingrich and the whole Republican leadership during the government shutdown crisis of 1995.
It was painful watching the Republicans trying to explain the simple truth half as well as Clinton promoted a lie. Republicans got blamed for shutting down the government, even though they had appropriated plenty of money to keep the government running.
Michael Steele can talk. That is even rarer among Republicans than being black.
Too many Republicans don't even seem to understand the need to talk. They seem to think it is something you have to go through the motions of doing but, really, they would rather be somewhere else, doing something else.
When the first President Bush looked at his watch during a nationally televised Presidential debate, he epitomized what has been wrong with Republicans for years.
A member of the audience had just asked a stupid question. Ronald Reagan would have been all over him, like a linebacker blitzing a quarterback. But Bush 41 just looked at his watch, as if he couldn't wait for this to be over.
Michael Steele not only knows how to talk, he seems to understand the need to talk. In his appearances on television over the years, he has been assertive rather than apologetic. When attacked, he has counter-attacked, not whined defensively, like too many other Republicans.
When criticizing the current administration, Steele won't have to pull his punches when going after Barack Obama, for fear of being called a racist.
Beyond that, one can only hope that Michael Steele understands what has been so disastrously wrong with the inept way Republicans have gone after the black vote for the past 30 years, by trying to be imitation Democrats.
There are numerous issues on which Democrats have pushed policies that are very harmful to blacks, especially supporting the teachers' unions instead of parental choice. But, however good the case, somebody has to make it. Somebody has to talk.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Chicago School Idolizes American's Enemies
Can't help but wonder if Bill Ayer's didn't have a hand in this fiasco!! Go to link to view complete letter.
We recently received a letter from one of our readers, Larry Nazimek, telling of a school, “Ninos Heros Academic Center,” in Chicago school district 299, that is named in honor of those who opposed the U.S. in the Mexican War of 1847. These youth are being held up as heroes for our children, and we wonder why we have problems in this country??? Here is an excerpt from the letter Larry sent to Chicago Board of Education’s Arne Duncan: Ninos Heros (also spelled “Heroes”) refers to six Mexican military cadets who jumped to their deaths (Some accounts say that all 6 jumped, while others say that 5 died fighting, and only the last one jumped.) from Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, rather than surrender to U. S. forces who were attacking the Castle during our Mexican War in 1847. This account is a historical fact that can be found in history books and tourist books about Mexico City.
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