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Thursday, September 22, 2005
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ARNOLD ADVOCATES PUBLIC SHAMING
Who knew he admired the tactics of Mao's Cultural Revolution?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign posted a form on its Web site asking Californians for stories about inferior teachers to support the ballot initiative to lengthen teachers' probationary period.
The form was then removed Wednesday after an Associated Press reporter called to inquire about it.
Posted on the Web site http://www.joinarnold.com the form asked: "Have a story about a teacher who just might not be cut out for the job, yet nothing can be done because of tenure? Please tell us. We'd like to share the stories of Californians like you!"
It was part of Schwarzenegger's campaign in favor of Proposition 74, which would boost the probationary period for new teachers to five years from two years....
The form used to be here. Google has it cached here.
Note the wording: "We'd like to share the stories." This isn't about traditional whistle-blowing -- reporting waste, fraud, and incompetence in the conduct of government business so it can be properly investigated. It sounds as if Arnold wasn't even going to bother with the investigations, or at most was going to have cursory checks done, and he was simply going to start telling the stories in public.
And the big tough guy, of course, backed off the minute he was challenged.
(Via DU.)
(Via No More Mister Nice Blog.)
California's current governor is a loathsome hack. He didn't get elected in a real election, with someone campaigning against him. Since he's been in, he's spent more time raising money than Davis, no slouch in that department ever dreamed of. He's not interested in working with other elected representatives, only in spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a special election he thinks he can dominate. His only public appearances are so staged as to make Hollywood blush. The only good thing he's done lately is ask Bush to stay away.
11:14:04 PM 
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I really enjoyed this Nova special the other night, about Glacial Lake Missoula and the huge floods that created the scablands of South Central Washington. That's some amazing country. A few years ago I drove from Spokane to Missoula and back, not too long after I'd read the Glacial Lake Missoula book; it was amazing to think of this huge lake stretching across northern Idaho and Western Montana, but you could really see the signs of it on the landscape around you. This show could have been longer, for my money.
11:09:51 PM
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If there is no immutable, transcendent God, then values are transitory, hollow, subjective, and ultimately determined by sheer force.
So no big surprise to learn that the Secular Coalition for America is trying to leverage some power in the Capital.
This always kind of cracks me up. Folks like this have absolutely no basis to say anything about anything of substance, but stridently insist that they be heeded, and demand that those who do have an objective basis shush up. It's never about what should be done, it's about what should not be done.
Scott Ott targets this for his usual, deadly satire.
(Via Biblical Christianity.)
So this guy with a invisible friend says that those of us who don't have a invisible friend don't have a basis to say anything about anything. Funny stuff. BTY, Scott Ott's satire is neither deadly nor funny or even recognizable as satire.
10:00:37 PM
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Just another reason we need a truly independent commision to investigate the mismanagement of FEMA and the Bush administration’s culture of corruption that rewarded political cronies with key appointments
Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to published reports.
“Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA’s efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections,” according to a May 19 Washington Post story.
Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown “and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.”
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel uncovered emails from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that confirmed those allegations and directly implicated Brown as playing politics at the expense of hurricane victims.
“As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal [FEMA] consultant predicted a “huge mess” that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show,” the Sentinel reported in a March 23 story.
(Via Oliver Willis - Like Kryptonite To Stupid.)
9:51:48 PM
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UNFIT FOR THE PRIESTHOOD:
This is a picture of Father Mychal Judge, the pastor for New York City's fire-fighters, an openly gay priest who died with those he served in the ashes of the World Trade Center. According to the new Pope, he should never have been ordained.
(Via Daily Dish.)
8:11:11 PM
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By raising the fines that would be levied against offending broadcasters some fifteenfold, to a fee of about $500,000 per crudity broadcast, and by threatening to revoke the licenses of repeat polluters, the Senate seeks to return to the public square the gentler tenor of yesteryear, when seldom were heard any scurrilous words, and famous guys were not foul mouthed all day. Yet researchers who study the evolution of language and the psychology of swearing say that they have no idea what mystic model of linguistic gentility the critics might have in mind. Cursing, they say, is a human universal. Every language, dialect or patois ever studied, living or dead, spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have its share of forbidden speech, some variant on comedian George Carlin's famous list of the seven dirty words that are not supposed to be uttered on radio or television.
No shit!
8:05:36 PM
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That bastion of journalistic ethics, the National Enquirer is reporting that Bush is drinking again. Mainly, they say, taking a nip here and there when Laura's not around.
A Washington source said: "The
sad fact is that he has been sneaking
drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him — but the
word is his drinking has been going
on for a while in the capital. He's been
in a pressure cooker for months.
"The war in Iraq, the loss of American
lives, has deeply affected him. He
takes every soldier's life personally. It
has left him emotionally drained.
The result is he's taking drinks here
and there, likely in private, to cope.
"And now with the worst domestic
crisis in his administration over Katrina,
you pray his drinking doesn't go
out of control."
Another source said: "I'm only surprised
to hear that he hadn't taken a
shot sooner. Before Katrina, he was
at his wit's end. I've known him for
years. He's been a good ol' Texas boy
forever. George had a drinking problem
for years that most professionals
would say needed therapy. He doesn't
believe in it [therapy], he never
got it. He drank his way through his
youth, through college and well into
his thirties. Everyone's drinking
around him."
Another source said: "A family
member told me they fear George is
'falling apart.' The First Lady has
been assigned the job of gatekeeper."
Bush's history of drinking dates
back to his youth. Speaking of his
time as a young man in the National
Guard, he has said: "One thing I remember,
and I'm most proud of, is
my drinking and partying. Those
were the days my friends. Those
were the good old days!"
12:52:20 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel.
Last update: 10/1/2005; 12:09:22 AM.
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