Unconventional Wisdom

Still looking but I did find former Senator Fred Thompson’s response to it. I’m still looking for the actual plan though. Thompson’s response might make it possible for him to get my support. Maybe.

This program that aired in January of last year was much better than this recent program about health care that I chronicled over the weekend.

 ABC’s John Stossel talks about the American education system. Examples of the trials and tribulations of giving our children a good education. The inability to fire in a timely fashion a bad teacher thanks to union rules. The rhetoric of those who seek to maintain their monopoly over education. Even the lengths parents would go thru to get their kids into good schools.

Oh, and this man should run for president one day. I really like this part of the story…

When the Sanford family moved from Charleston to Columbia, S.C., the family had a big concern: Where would the kids go to school? In most places, you must attend the public school in the zone where you live, but the middle school near the Sanford’s new home was rated below average.

It turned out, however, that this didn’t pose a problem for this family, because the reason the Sanfords moved to Columbia was that Mark Sanford had been elected governor. He and his wife were invited to send their kids to schools in better districts.

Sanford realized how unfair the system was. “If you can buy a $250,000 or $300,000 house, you’re gonna get some great public education,” Gov. Sanford said. Or if you have political connections.

The Sanfords decided it was unfair to take advantage of their position as “first family” and ended up sending their kids to private school. “It’s too important to me to sacrifice their education. I get one shot at it. If I don’t pay very close attention to how my boys get educated then I’ve lost an opportunity to make them the best they can be in this world,” Jenny Sanford said.

The governor then proposed giving every parent in South Carolina that kind of choice, regardless of where they lived or whether they made a lot of money. He said state tax credits should help parents pay for private schools. Then they would have a choice.

“The public has to know that there’s an alternative there. It’s just like, do you get a Sprint phone or an AT&T phone,” Chavous said.

He’s right. When monopolies rule, there is little choice, and little gets done. In America the phone company was once a government-supported monopoly. All the phones were black, and all the calls expensive. With competition, things have changed — for the better. We pay less for phone calls. If we’re unhappy with our phone service, we switch companies.

Why can’t kids benefit from similar competition in education?

“People expect and demand choice in every other area of their life,” Sanford said.

The governor announced his plan last year and many parents cheered the idea, but school boards, teachers unions and politicians objected. PTAs even sent kids home with a letter saying, “Contact your legislator. How can we spend state money on something that hasn’t been proven?”

A lot of people say education tax credits and vouchers are a terrible idea, that they’ll drain money from public schools and give it to private ones.

Last week’s Florida court ruling against vouchers came after teacher Ruth Holmes Cameron and advocacy groups brought a suit to block the program.

“To say that competition is going to improve education? It’s just not gonna work. You know competition is not for children. It’s not for human beings. It’s not for public education. It never has been, it never will be,” Holmes said.

The video gives an update on Gov. Sanford’s iniative. I saw the video on TV-Links. Though I always thought that YouTube had about 10 minute limits on all videos, I was shocked to find that this video could be seen on YouTube for around a whopping 45 minutes. How cool I though.

So here is the video in its entirety, enjoy.

Heh, back in 1996 being somewhat ignorant about Rev. Jesse Jackson’s run for the presidency during the 1980s it was great to see a black man run for President. At that he was running on the Republican side of the aisle too. There aren’t many black Republican out there I noticed.

Years later I realized why he didn’t go too far in 1996 or even 2000 and now he tries again in 2008. He took 2004 off, you know the whole deal about the IL Republican Party forcing their elected Senate nominee out of the election and putting this out of control guy in his place. Because the Republicans chose to remove someone who could have made the ’04 contest with Obama a true race I figured out how Keyes doesn’t go too far in elections.

 He has a big mouth. He also has this intractable religious conviction. Don’t get me wrong I’m not anti-religion at all but the religious conviction displayed by Keyes doesn’t belong in politics. You can browbeat people with that, especially if people aren’t not going to believe as you believe.

Then again some voters are hoping Keyes’ entry will further dilute the field. That could be good for those who want their candidate to win with outrageously low numbers.

I missed this program on TV last week. I’ve been a fan of John Stossel for a while. He has this ability to get to the heart of the matter where other’s miss it. On my other blog I’ve posted videos about health care in Canada. He touches upon how people thinks it’s so great and discusses the truth about that health care system.

 On YouTube the whole progam is there but I’ll just show three of my favorites here. Enjoy!

CLINTON MAKES CIVIL RIGHTS PITCH TO S.C. AFRICAN-AMERICANS from MSNBC’s first read. I hate to beat on a dead horse but I suppose the more stories from this that can be shared the better…

Before an audience of about 1,000 people, Clinton spoke about the need to restore the federal government’s role in protecting civil rights.

“To feel as though the clock is being turned back is unacceptable in this country,” Clinton told the audience.

Clinton’s five-point platform focuses on rebuilding the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice, helping schools bring about voluntary integration and reducing racial inequality, strengthening voting laws, fighting racial and sex discrimination and improving federal hate crimes laws.

Clinton and her rivals for the nomination are trying to woo black support in this early state where their votes are seen as crucial to winning the primary. Blacks made up about half of the voters in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary here.

Democratic presidential candidates have often looked to meetings of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization to demonstrate their support for issues of concern to the black community. This time was no different.

Clinton used the opportunity to hail the NAACP for its years of work for civil rights.

Charleston NAACP Branch President Dot Scott said the group would not be endorsing any candidate, but that speaking before the group was good for candidates like Clinton.

“It allows them to make that connection,” said Scott.

Clinton talked about ending the war in Iraq, but she also addressed issues of historical importance to the black community like access to quality education, health care and voting rights.

As part of her civil rights agenda, which her campaign released several hours before the event, the senator promised to sign legislation that would guarantee equal access to polling stations and equal distribution of voting machines for all Americans, and require states to work to reduce wait times for voters.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re not disenfranchising Americans, after having spent 50 years trying to extend the franchise to every single American,” Clinton said.

Clinton also pledged to “allow ex-offenders who have paid their debt to society to vote in federal elections.”

She was even quoted on the case of the Jena Six in Louisiana. A story that has been on the minds of many blacks in this country…

The senator spoke publicly for the first time about a controversial case involving six black youths who were charged in an attack on a white student at a high school in Jena, La., last year.

A state appeals court judge overturned the aggravated battery conviction of one of the teens, Mychal Bell, saying he should not have been tried as an adult because he was 16 at the time of the alleged crime.

Bell had originally been charged with attempted second-degree murder. Those charges led to widespread concerns among many in the local black community and civil rights leaders nationwide that the black students were being treated more harshly than white students after a series of racial confrontations on campus.

Civil rights officials have said they still plan to rally in Jena this week, in support of the other young men still facing charges.

“Let me be clear, there is no excuse for the way the legal system treated those young people. This case reminds us that the scales of justice are seriously out of balance, when it comes to charging, sentencing and punishing African-Americans,” Clinton said.

“We cannot forget that this is not over yet. There are still questions unanswered. The case in Jena cries out for a full investigation by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division,” she said to applause.

From Instapundit someone is apparently trying to duck away from Hillary Care of the early 1990s…

The first lady was an active force in these discussions, but there was never any question that the president was in charge. We took our guidance from him. That, of course, was how it should have been (who else but the president ought to make such decisions?), except that many reporters and the public thought that Bill Clinton had handed over the policy to Hillary and that she would report back to him, which was not the case.

Presidents often downplay their own direct involvement in decision making to put some distance between themselves and policies that may eventually prove to be unsuccessful. Part of the job of cabinet members and advisors is to take the blame when things go wrong. Clinton’s appointment of his wife to chair the task force did not, however, create the necessary distance and deniability. Not only did the fiction of Hillary’s personal responsibility for the health plan fail to protect the president at the time, it has also now come back to haunt her in her own quest for the presidency.

About the progress of another nation attempting to rebuild after years of Civil War but unable to unify and then relate this to what’s going on in Iraq…

It seems that 12 years after ending their civil war, they still have no national security force, instead it’s divided between the two ethnic enclaves in the country. Yet that country is the example of how to “do it right” by some on the left. Funny, but they are fractured into two major “sectors”, each lead by it’s own leader, reporting to a PM, each supplying it’s own security forces, even in different uniforms. That’s not exactly a “unified” country.

I bring it up because I’m surprised the Post published the story. It gives credence to the idea that maybe our Congress is pushing for too much to fast in Iraq, and setting unrealistic benchmarks. Hell, it will probably become fodder for the legion of right wing talk radio hosts and bloggers to point out that progress is slow in new democracies.

And rightfully so; it took 3 years for the fledgling US to come up with the Articles of Confederation, our first shot at a national unity government. It failed after just a few years, and we started from scratch with the Constitution we now have. It was five and a half years after the end of the Revolutionary war before we had a President under the Constitution; that was 13 years after we declared our independence. Iraq, though, should have everything done in under six, with no infighting or problems, right?

Clinton Praises Jena 6 Reversal - I have no doubt that this is how she intends to maintain her base of black voters. The main reason she might have to change her accent in Selma, Alabama this past spring to why she might have to trout out her famous former president husband out every now and then.

ABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: Sen. Hillary Clinton D-N.Y, speaking in Charleston, South Carolina at the NAACP Freedom Fund Benefit, praised the recent decision regarding the case of Louisiana’s Jena 6. The decision made Friday by Louisiana’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the aggravated second-degree battery conviction of Mychal Bell and ruled that the youth had been tried improperly as an adult.

The case, involving six African-American teenagers from Jena, LA were charged first with attempted murder, then battery, after their actions in a school fight had left a white student in the emergency room for three hours with no permanent injuries.

“This case reminds us that the scales of justice are seriously out of balance when it comes to charging, sentencing, and punishing African-Americans” Clinton stated “it cries out for a full investigation from the Department of Justices’ Civil Rights division.”

Clinton cited Hurricane Katrina as an example of how Americans feel “invisible” under this administration. While speaking to a predominately African-American audience about the hurricane, she said “you are invisible to this president even when you are on CNN.”

Clinton unveils agenda to promote civil rights - And also in keeping with her strategy to keep black voters in her camp. She also has a Civil Right plan. Hmmm there’s gotta be a way to know more…

Clinton, rival Barack Obama and other presidential candidates are heavily courting the black vote as they trek through this early voting state. Nearly half the voters in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary here were black.

Clinton said her administration would seek to rebuild the Justice Department’s traditional role in defending civil rights and to review charges of improper, politically motivated hiring to determine whether any laws were broken.

“We have to believe justice is blind in America,” she told the audience.

The earlier campaign statement accused the Bush administration of driving the Civil Rights Division “toward an agenda driven by partisanship, cronyism and ideology” and cited media reports that state political appointees have dominated the hiring process under Bush.

Last month, Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim, the Justice Department’s top civil rights enforcer, resigned after more than a year of criticism that his office filled its ranks with conservative loyalists instead of experienced attorneys. The Justice Department said his office had set record levels of civil rights enforcement.

Clinton’s other proposals include combatting voter ID laws, letting ex-felons who have completed their sentences regain their right to vote and making Election Day a federal holiday to make voting easier. She said she would press for Washington, D.C., to get a seat in the House of Representatives.

Clinton also is proposing an expansion of federal hate crimes legislation to include crimes committed against people based on their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

Heh, this blog post from CNN’s Political Ticker clinches the fact that she’s courting the black vote. Yup that’s the only reason why she’s using Bill Clinton and attempting to take on a southern twang. She wants to win this bad boy.

Romney: My wife is ‘prettier’ than Bill Clinton - This last one is just plain wrong even if it’s the truth there’s just no reason for this.

Commenting Saturday on a new Time Magazine cover story titled “The Real Running Mates” — which focuses on the current crop of presidential candidates’ spouses — Republican candidate Mitt Romney said his wife would make a “prettier first lady” than former president Bill Clinton.

“It has a picture of five of the possible first ladies,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “In the upper left hand corner it has my wife, and then next to it, it has Bill Clinton. And she is a much prettier first lady than Bill Clinton, I can tell you that!”

The cover story features a photograph of a commemorative White House china plate. On it are the faces of five potential ‘first spouses’ — Bill Clinton, Ann Romney, Elizabeth Edwards, Judith Nathan and Michelle Obama.

Romney made the comments at his tent at the University of Iowa/Iowa State football game. When asked which team he would be supporting, Romney chose to stay neutral, but after a few more people asked the same question, he saw an opportunity to take another subtle jab at the Clinton family, this time toward Hillary.

“I know there’s only one thing that would bring both of these Teams … together, and that’s to make sure that Hillary Clinton is not the next president of the United States,” he said.

At first I thought he was talking Hillary. Ah well the deed is done and he got his obligatory slam against the Clintons.