I gave (correction) Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan the benefit of the doubt for a long period of time in her quest to speak with President Bush because I thought she was being quite sincere and level-headed.  But I am now completely convinced she has taken on the role of hatchet lady for the hate-Bush crowd. (which I abhor every bit as much as the Bush-can-do-no-wrong crowd).  Why my change of heart?

From a really over-the-top article she submitted to The Huffington Post today...

...If George Bush truly listened to God and read the words of the Christ, Iraq and the devastation in New Orleans would have never happened.  ...George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power...

Actually President Bush would have had to have actually become God before we could expect him to avert such a natural disaster as Sheehan suggests.  Listening to Him - even intently - just wasn't going detour Katrina from New Orleans the way I see it.  (On Iraq, she might have a point though)

Also, if Ms. Sheehan thinks it through, it would be very difficult for the President to admit mistakes if he were to 'stop talking', and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that he has already made such an admission, at least on Katrina relief.  Twice. 

And lastly, President Bush is no Richard Nixon, so I don't see her last request getting any consideration from anyone, except, perhaps, from the hate-Bush bunch.

Sheehan has now lost all credibility with me.

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In case you missed it, there was an interesting letter to the editor in today's N&R.

Guilford County Schools' chief human resource officer Michael Harris took the N&R to task for quoting, "...information from the Department of Public Instruction regarding class sizes at Colfax Elementary and Peck Elementary that paints a very inaccurate picture of actual class sizes."  This was in response to a scathing, but unposted, September 15th (yesterday) editorial regarding the reduction of teacher assistants that concluded with this important question: "...Why isn't the system providing adequate resources for all?"

Harris leaves that question on the table, but instead attacks statistics cited in the editorial - statistics provided by GCS.

Harris says, "...there are no classes at Colfax Elementary with 26 students in third grade. "  But the GCS source used by the N&R (and the rest of the world) clearly shows that last year, the average third grade class at Colfax contained 26 students.

Also, Harris says Peck Elementary's classes have an average size of "...16.7 in third grade."  The information published by GCS and used by the N&R indicates a third grade class size of 13.

While I certainly understand that things can change in a year's time, Harris' tone in admonishing the N&R for publishing "misleading information" that the school system itself provides to the public was overly defensive and way off-base.  By telling the N&R they should have "checked with the schools or district office" before reporting the class size numbers, GCS is suggesting that all of the statistics published on their website are suspect and that we should first call a school adminstrator before believing what we read there.

On a related note:  Is it just me, or doesn't it seem that GCS personnel gets preferential treatment when it comes to getting letters to the editor published in our local paper.  Last month, Dr. Grier was able to get a LTE inserted the day after the N&R allowed some grammatical errors to get by in a promotional piece he submitted for publication.  Today, Harris gets his letter inserted the day after the editorial he was disputing was published.

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