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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 27 March 2001 | Vol. II #45 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 27 March 2001 | Vol. II #45 | ||
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Some of GW's financial advisors have been back-peddling on the issue of the estate tax, better known as the death tax. The words of columnist Paul Craig Roberts in his September 6, 2000 column may need to be revisited.
"On Aug. 31, President Clinton vetoed the repeal of the death tax. He said that unless the federal government continued to confiscate people's property at death, the government would have "no money to invest in our common future."
Clinton's few words show the change in thinking that occurred in the 20th century. The United States has become a political entity in which strangers have a stronger claim to a person's accumulated lifetime assets than that person's children or heirs. This elevation of the interests of strangers over the interest of the family is the achievement of Karl Marx. Like the program of Marxism-Leninism, the death tax makes individual property common property.
"A nation cannot exist half slave and half free." But the United States has been existing in such a state for some time. We are half slave, because the government has claim to about half of our income during our lives and to about half of our assets at our death. We are half free because we control the other half.
This is an ambiguous position for a country that calls itself "the land of the free." In which direction will we go? Will we become two-thirds slave and one-third free or will we move in the direction of one-third slave and two-thirds free?"
*** Hire the enemy to fight for you.
"Sisters", her 1981 novel, is set, as the cover says, in the 19th century American West, 'when men were men, and women were property.' "Sisters" includes accounts of a marital rape, a tender love affair between two women, and arrogant male doctor...A love letter in the book from a woman to her female lover reads: "Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitching by the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl." New York Times, 2/6/01
Who is the author of "Sisters" this "masterpiece" of lesbian literature? Lynne Cheney, wife of Dick Cheney, our Republican Vice President. When asked by the New York Times why she wrote about a lesbian love affair she said she couldn't remember.
Wasn't she the one who campaigned against the NEH's funding of homosexual history in public school books, as the head of the NEH, under Reagan and Bush? Now you know why we lost those battles. And now we have a better understanding as to how the Cheneys daughter turned out to be a lesbian working for Coors Beer. The daughter must have been reading Momma's book.
[ Issues and Strategy Bulletin ]
The Government Services Administration is attempting to sort out ongoing billing troubles related to Bill Clinton's current staffing and expenses.
He doesn't move into his Harlem digs until June at the earliest, and while he waits, according to a GSA source, the ex-president is running up what others in the department are calling "astronomical" phone bills and staffing costs.
"It was far beyond what Presidents Reagan and Bush tallied in the aftermath of their administrations," says the GSA staffer. "It's easy for Clinton to do it because no one is paying attention."
In the on-going class warfare being waged by the Democrats the battle gets even funnier.
President Bush wants to return to the taxpayers some of the SURPLUS that has been paid in before those in Washington spend it. Today Joe Leiberman suggested a onetime tax rebate to all of the taxpayers of $300 per person. Now if that isn't wealth re-distribution I'll eat my hat. Someone who paid nothing in income taxes will get the same $300 as someone who paid thousands!
Here's another idea the socialcrats have. Exempt the first $8000.00 of income from payroll taxes, that is, Social Security and Medicare. Isn't this from the same party that claims that W's plan does nothing to help the expected shortages in Social Security and Medicare in the future? Of course this comes from the same party that has been spending the SS trust fund money buying votes for years with their socialist programs and now they are the leaders to save the system! Who broke the system in the first place?
Let's see, if you exempt the first $8000.00 of income from payroll taxes, the system is already set up to fail if taxes aren't increased, how in the world is this going to fix the problem? Are they going to in-turn not count that same $8000.00 towards your eligibility for SSI payments? Two negatives and one positive don't come out to a positive result!
[ Ike Harley ]
Note: Dr. Marlett has served as teacher, principal, headmaster and school board president. He is well qualified to speak on matters of education even though he is not a member of any trade union.
They are the front-line leaders in carrying out school reforms to ensure that children learn, but the nation's teachers say when it comes to being a part of decision-making in their districts, their opinions often are ignored.
Seventy percent of teachers say they are "left out of the loop" in crucial school decisions, according to a new report to be released today by the New York-based opinion firm Public Agenda.
When school district leaders do make the effort to ask teachers about policies and their concerns, teachers often distrust their motives, the study found.
Less than a fourth of teachers said district leaders' motives were "to gain a better understanding of the issues and concerns of the teachers." Nearly three-fourths said the motive was to win teacher support for "what the district leadership wants to accomplish."
A resounding 97 percent of teachers, the study also found, agreed that "the most important thing members of their community could do for schools is to give teachers their strong support."
Darrell Capwell, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, said the study provides solid research to bolster what teachers long have said - that in the drive for accountability, they have become "almost an afterthought."
Mr. Capwell called teachers' feelings of disenfranchisement an "alarming" trend that could undercut their morale, which ultimately hurts children.
"This is certainly a heads-up for school districts," Mr. Capwell said of the study. "Teachers want to be involved, they have good ideas, and when they are included in the discourse about what works, everyone benefits," from schools to students to parents.
[ Washington Times ]
TCN Comment: If individual teachers want their ideas to be considered, they must first disassociate themselves from the radical teachers unions. With the unions claiming to speak for the teachers, it appears to all that the teachers have "good ideas" like those described in the following articles.
The United Federation of Teachers will honor disgraced ex-president Bill Clinton in May with its coveted John Dewey humanitarian award for advancing pro-education and labor policies.
The impeached Democrat will give what is being described as a "major address" at the UFT's annual convention in New York, according to the New York Post, which broke the news of the Clinton honorific Monday.
The invite stunned some rank-and-file educators.
"This is just insane," Brooklyn history teacher Morris Martin told the paper. "Clinton isn't a role model for adults, let alone children."
Martin wondered whether Sen. Hillary Clinton, who steadfastly defended teachers unions during her campaign last year, had anything to do with garnering the award for her husband.
"Clinton is not worthy of getting a dog tag around his neck," fellow educator Brenda Fuqua told the Post. "He's brought more disgrace to this country than any other president."
But UFT spokesman Ron Davis defended the move, explaining, "We think that during his two terms in office, Bill Clinton has done much to improve the lives of American families."
The teachers union honor comes amidst reports that the ex-president is being hit with a raft of speaking engagement cancellations, with the American Spectator Online reporting Monday that as many as 25 Clinton invites have been rescinded.
And while a student group at New York's Cardozo School of Law saw fit to bestow an international peace award on Clinton last week, three weeks ago he was reduced to addressing a Tennessee convention of Ripley's Believe It or Not executives.
[ NewsMax ]
TCN Comment: Every resposible person in the country, plus many DemocRATS are running from Clinton and the teacher's unions are bestowing honors on him…. How could anyone disregard their vast intellect?
A picture of a soldier holding a canteen and a knife has earned the third-grade boy who drew it a suspension from school.
Wire reports said the third-grader also drew a fort, listing its inventory as guns, knives and first-aid kits.
The principal of Lenwill Elementary School in West Monroe, La., is quoted as saying that the school "can't tolerate anything that has to do with guns or knives." According to press reports, school officials stand by their decision to punish the child for "a violent arrangement."
The boy's father said he was forced to explain to his son that being in the Army and owning guns "is not bad."
[ CNS ]
TCN Comment: In a similar case a student was recently suspended for pointing a piece of paper folded to look like a gun at class-mates. Where has the common sense gone?
Annapolis kids at one school appear to be too delicate to play tag.
The game tens of millions of American youngsters have always played in school yard recess periods is banned in West Annapolis Elementary school - the principal thinks that tagging each other endangers her students.
That has fifth grader Joseph Pantaleo up in arms - he and a dozens other students signed a petition asking that the ban be lifted.
But principal Joan Brisco won't give in. She says that playing tag violates the school's "no touching" policy.
"They would start up and inevitably it got too rough," Principal Joan Brisco told Annapolis's The Capitol newspaper. "The reason we stopped tag was because we didn't want them getting hurt."
Nonsense says Joseph's father, Dan who insists that tag should be allowed because it isn't anywhere near as rough and tumble as other sports with more contact played at West Annapolis school.
"In her mind, it's a safety issue," he said. "But there's more physical interaction in a game of soccer than there is in tag."
Despite the protests, Brisco is adamant - the ban remains in effect, although students are allowed to play tag during physical education, if their teacher is present and is willing to lead a group game. But unsupervised tag during recess is out.
Huntley Cross, special assistant for alternative programs in county schools, told The Capital that safety rules are the responsibility of the principal
"A ... principal's ultimate responsibility is not only education, but the health and safety of the students," said Mr. Cross, who led the county's discipline policies until recently. "Kids are rougher today, they really are. It's a judgment call that every principal has to make." Cross, however denied that the county schools have any so-called "no-touching" policy - a policy Brisco cited as a justification for the ban. He also said he was unaware of any other school in the district that bans tag.
[ NewsMax ]
TCN Comment: Now tag has joined dodge-ball as a violent game that is dangerous for children.
RENO NV -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has criticized a 10-day suspension handed down to a Gardnerville girl for compiling a list of classmates with whom she's "frustrated."
Richard Siegel, the ACLU's state president, accused Douglas County school officials of overstepping their bounds and over-reacting to the recent school shootings in San Diego County.
The Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School student was not taken into custody because a sheriff's investigation last week concluded there was no immediate threat, said school Principal Robbin Pedrett.
The girl did not have access to guns or ammunition, and it's unclear if she directly threatened anyone, Pedrett said. The girl regrets writing the list, she added.
"There's nothing wrong with (school officials) acting on obvious threats," Siegel said. "But this is absolutely absurd. To say someone is frustrated about teachers and students is not making a threat.
"This is a clear violation of her First Amendment rights. We're creating a situation where students can't express themselves in areas where it could very well be therapeutic."
Pedrett defended the suspension, saying sheriff's deputies considered the girl's list of classmates' names enough of a threat to investigate.
The students named on the list are being interviewed and also could face discipline, depending on the outcome of a continuing investigation, she said.
Citing students' right to privacy, the principal declined to discuss specifics about the girl's frustrations.
"It's easy for the ACLU to say something when they don't have 800 students and 42 teachers," Pedrett said. "We don't want a school shooting in our county, and we would rather err on the side of student safety.
"We owe it to our student body to investigate and that's what we're doing. Our concern is to see if she (suspended student) is safe and the others are safe. We're trying to see how real the threat is."
The suspended girl will be given a hearing after the investigation is completed.
The sheriff's department learned about her list after receiving an anonymous tip from a parent.
ACLU officials have long accused school officials of over-reacting in such cases, saying the lack of uniform disciplinary guidelines is at the heart of the problem.
"In the absence of clear guidelines there will be some absurd intepretations as to what constitutes a threat or danger to students," Siegel said.
"We're concerned about both a failure to communicate genuine threats and the enforcement without guidelines where free expression and First Amendment rights are at stake."
But Pedrett said the handling of the incident shows the school's system to prevent violence works.
"We want to make sure our school is absolutely, positively safe. That's the most important thing," she said.
TCN Comment: I am sure this lunacy did a lot to settle the girl's frustrations… And added a few more names to the list.
Characterizing math as a color may help students voice their feelings, one education policy researcher said, but test scores will continue to fall unless teachers return to the basics and promote facts and logic over cooperation and self-esteem.
By replacing the rational math system with the whole, or "fuzzy," system, educators have not only confused their students - as reflected by recent comparative test scores - but also forced them to abandon any semblance of lucid and independent thinking they might have possessed, said Andrew Bernstein, a senior writer with the Ayn Rand Institute and a philosophy professor at Pace University.
"Whole math is where they're teaching the children there are no right answers in math," Bernstein said. "It's when children are organized into small groups and they try to come up with a creative strategy to answer the problem."
For instance, he continued, the teacher might divide the class into groups and ask that each solve the multiplication problem, 13 times 13.
"An imaginative kid might get 13 objects together and then add it up that way," Bernstein said.
Regardless of the answers the various groups come up with, though, the teacher's comments are intended to praise each group for approaching the problem creatively rather than correcting any erroneous solution, Bernstein said.
"They're not using protractors to measure angles," he continued. "They use bent straws, or stretch a rubber band. Or they're asked, if math were a color - and told to fill in the blank. That's to get them to discuss their feelings."
Not every school in the country practices the whole math method, but "this is the trend," Bernstein said, and "one of the major reasons why U.S. students are doing horribly in math," trailing Malaysia, Bulgaria, and Latvia in recent rankings.
President George W. Bush's education plan may be a "step in the right direction" of improving student scores and learning experiences, Bernstein said, but even his call for higher standards and parental choice does not address the root of the issue, epitomized in the National Education Association's 2000-2001 resolutions.
Representatives from the NEA could not be reached for comment, but according to the group's Internet site, "The Association supports the development and maintenance of gender-free and culturally unbiased mathematics and science programs."
What that means, Bernstein said, is the NEA "wants to get rid of logic and independent thinking" and continue the trend of "fuzzy" teaching geared toward fostering self-esteem and the expression of feelings that is seen in today's schools.
The whole, or "fuzzy," method of computing math has angered many parents, too, according to The Center for Education Reform, which found that children tested in New York City school systems had a lot of trouble understanding how to estimate numbers.
"One parent ... said her son felt a lack of clarity when his teacher insisted that he estimate answers, rather than compute them precisely," The Center for Education Reform reported. "Another parent said she was troubled because her son ... spent months counting with coins and solving equations using friendly numbers, for instance, converting 71 plus 19 into 70 plus 20."
Protest groups comprised mostly of parents have formed in areas like Plano, Tex., and Lincoln, Mass., the education center stated, to combat such programs as MathLand, which proposes students count a million grains of birdseed in order that they might "get a feeling for the size of a million."
Meanwhile, math tutors have seen a resurgence in popularity of late; both Bernstein and the education reform center reported that "an epidemic of children" have sought private help to learn the basic skills.
[ CNS Archives ]
TCN Comment: Of course if there is no right and wrong it is impossible to discern a politician's lies. Not that we would accuse the NEA of any left leaning bias….
From the dearth of mainstream media coverage, you'd never know that the nation's most powerful teachers union has been playing fast and loose with federal election law for years.
But that's exactly what the Virginia-based public interest law firm, the Landmark Legal Foundation, says the National Education Association has been doing, in a series of ads that appeared this past weekend in a number of the country's leading newspapers.
"Obey the Law!" Landmark headlined the ad.
"The leaders of the NEA were apparently absent the day their civics teachers taught that America's laws apply to everyone. For years the nation's largest union has spent millions in tax-exempt funds to influence elections and contribute to candidates - all without reporting a dime of those expenditures to the government or paying any taxes on those contributions as required by law."
Landmark currently has complaints about the NEA before the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission, based on what its lawyers have uncovered so far:
A $50 million tax-exempt NEA slush fund, which the union used in 1993 and 1994 to bankroll its political machine around the country.
A $2.5 million expenditure in the 1995-96 election cycle alone to recruit NEA-friendly political candidates and mobilize its membership.
A 1996 budget of $9.6 million to screen candidates for federal office and conduct political polls.
A Boston Globe report cited by Landmark reveals that in the early 1990s:
"The NEA spent 10 times as much of its budget on political activity ($34.7 million) as on ensuring excellence in public education ($3.3 million) or improving professional standards and working conditions for all education employees ($3 million)."
"Yet, the NEA has not reported any of these political expenditures on its federal returns or paid any taxes on them," says Landmark.
[ NewsMax Archives ]
By Linda Bowles
In recent years, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has shown a propensity to leap like a junkyard attack dog at every suspected and imagined tax violation by conservative organizations such as the Christian Coalition and the Western Journalism Center; and it has with similar, savage enthusiasm executed tax audits on Bill Clinton's accusers, such as Juanita Broaddrick, alleged rape victim, and Paula Jones, alleged pants-dropping target.
Given such diligence, you may never have suspected that the same IRS might look the other way at massive and in-your-face violations of its tax codes by liberal organizations such as the National Education Association. Fortunately, the Landmark Legal Foundation, as an act of good citizenship and in the interest of fair play, has politely reminded a selectively negligent IRS that political activities and expenditures by the tax-exempt NEA "are taxable to the organization unless they are segregated from the organization's general operations and conducted through a political action committee."
In a formal complaint, the foundation, headed by legal scholar Mark Levin, presented a veritable mountain of evidence and exhibits to support the charge that the NEA has for a number of years lavishly spent general operating funds on taxable political activities and failed to report them on its tax returns.
It remains to be seen whether the IRS is willing to take time from its punitive witch hunts and its routine assaults on private citizens to conduct a serious investigation in response to a serious complaint. As we say in the trade when confronted with a highly unlikely occurrence, "Don't hold your breath!"
It is difficult to believe that any thinking person, other than perhaps a trial lawyer, would have the gall to argue that the National Education Association is not a thoroughly partisan, political organization. The NEA knows it has an image problem, and has sought help in dealing with it. Exhibit 23 of the Landmark Legal Foundation's presentation is a copy of a friendly audit by The Kamber Group. The Kamber people identified four perceptions of the NEA which that organization needs to overcome:
1. The NEA is a monolithic union that looks out for No. 1 at everyone else's - including kids' - expense.
2. The NEA is a giant political arm of the Democratic Party.
3. The NEA is the greatest obstacle to needed education reform.
4. The NEA has nothing new or positive to offer.
While Kamber suggested to the union bosses that these perceptions could be overcome with better communications, the reality is that these are not communication problems. This is not a list of misperceptions. This is an accurate diagnosis of a corrupt, self-serving organization that provides money and services to key Democratic politicians like Bill Clinton, Algore and California Gov. Gray Davis in exchange for protection of its monopoly from reform, competition and accountability.
The NEA is the largest and most powerful trade union in America. Its open agenda is indistinguishable from that of any other radical, left-wing organization. Its philosophy of secular statism, anti-American multiculturalism, Marxian egalitarianism, and moral relativism permeates the government school curriculum.
Like most unions, educational unions protect mediocrity and oppose change.
They believe that need, not merit, should be the basis of rewards, that competition is unhealthy, that equality of outcome is more important than the attainment of excellence and that it is the job of government schools to protect children from the wrong-headedness and incompetence of parents. The concept that a school would live or die based upon doing a good job with the children is totally alien, not to mention frightening, to those in charge of government schools. They do not understand or value the power of free enterprise, market forces and competition. For this reason alone, they should not be involved with the education of our children.
Historians Will and Ariel Durant defined education as the "transmission of civilization ... our mental, moral, technical and aesthetic heritage ..." They wrote: "Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die ..."
The transmission of America's heritage to oncoming generations has been short-circuited. The values and traditions that made America the greatest nation in history and the envy of the world are dying
[ Creator's Syndicate ]
TCN Comment: The lesson taught - It is not necessary to obey the law if you are promoting a socialist agenda. Election laws are written to restrict the activities of right wing nationalist that are trying to get their own way so they do not apply to us.
A planned partnership between the nation's two largest teacher unions represents an effort by one of the most powerful political lobbies to create a "10-ton gorilla," according to Phyllis Schlafly, president of the conservative Eagle Forum.
The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, longtime liberal rivals in their representation of government school teachers, confirm that a "partnership" agreement is being drafted, which could be voted on by both unions' representative bodies next July.
"The partnership is not a merger document, and certainly there are many advantages to finding an orderly way to collaborate. We typically do that. We collaborate on many things together. This provides a more routine structure for identifying and accomplishing tasks together," said Kate Mattos, NEA communications director.
AFT spokesman Jamie Horwitz says the two unions have been talking about a partnership for some time.
"A couple of years ago, the AFT voted to merge, although the NEA did not accept the merger agreement. At their invitation, we went into more talks. We have been working closely with the NEA in the last couple of years and there are plans to continue to do so. We've had some state and local mergers in the last couple of years as well."
Officials from Education Intelligence Agency, a watchdog group, are measuring the possible effect of an NEA/AFT partnership. An EIA report wonders whether such a deal can settle the disagreements between the two unions that "have kept them apart for 30 years: AFL-CIO affiliation, the secret ballot, raiding in states without collective bargaining laws, and guaranteed minority representation."
However, Schlafly blames both teacher unions for the problems in America's government schools and for leading efforts to defeat ballot initiatives in California and Michigan that offered more educational choices for parents.
"They still have the overwhelming majority of children in public schools, but there is a growing dissatisfaction with the public schools ... There may be people who think that the handwriting's on the wall. People are really fed up with the failure of the public schools and tend to blame the unions," Schlafly said.
"It's not just their power over the schools and the curriculum, it's their political power and they have one of the largest political action committees," Schlafly said. "They exercise a lot of clout on Capitol Hill always, of course, in favor of more worthless federal spending."
"I think it's obvious that the (union) leadership wants to combine because they want to be a bigger gorilla on the block. They want to be a 10-ton gorilla instead of an 8-ton gorilla," she added.
EIA says the "agreement" calls for a 30-member joint council made up of 15 NEA officials and 15 AFT officials, including executive officers from both unions. The council will be bound by the directives of their respective union's policies and bylaws, and each union will be responsible for funding its share of the council's expenses.
In early 1997, according to EIA, members of the two unions oversaw "joint activities in the areas of school discipline, school infrastructure and teacher quality."
Mattos says she doesn't expect any action on the possible partnership before the NEA Board of Directors meets in February.
EIA believes if the agreement is approved by the NEA board in February, the rank and file of both unions may vote on the matter some time next summer.
[ CNS Archives ]
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