Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[SunMo]

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[rjs246]

People should not fear their governments. Governments should fear their people.

[Rome]

Hahaha.

[phillymic2000]

I was talking about nothing positive, but thanks for creating a list.

[PhillyGirl]

The fact that you view something like that in such a stereotypically partisan way is sad. It has nothing to do with republican or democrat, it has to do with the foundation of our democratic system. But you know, your guy won so rah rah cheating!

The majority of the people on this board view things in a stereotypically way 

reassured his Republican base all the same that the Red states can still count on their republican leadership to hate on and fear the Negros just like they do.

So you can kiss it with the high and mighty down talking. And I am not celebrating his win. Bush to me was a better choice then Gore or Kerry, call me whatever, but it was the least of the two evils for me to vote for him again. The last 8 yrs have been bitter for me. To see a republican president and congress get nothing done, spend like a 10 yr. old at toys r us, and put this country in the situation we are in pisses me off.

This whole post makes me want to stick a dagger in your eye.

[rjs246]

You're welcome.

By the way, I have no problem with deposing evil genocidal dictators. And if that had been the premise of the war from the beginning, and if evidence of Saddam's evils (which were abundant) were officially presented along with a defined plan of action for once he was out of power I would defend the decision to go to war. But the fact that the whole premise of the war was that they had weapons of mass destruction capable of starting a third world war and attacking America, and only after the fact did the notion of getting rid of a murderous dictator get presented as motivation reaks of bullshtein. We attacked because we wanted to form a friendly government that would help feed our addiction to oil.

[troyhstewart]

Don't forget about No Child Left Behind.

[Diomedes]

Yeah, that's working out great too


worst president ever

[rjs246]

Ah! How could I forget... he single handedly took our public education system (which was already struggling) and gutted it. Public education is one of the greatest things about this country and No Child Left Behind has done a ton of damage when the system needed help the most. Awful.

[Rome]

The notion that we invaded Iraq because they had WMD's is ridiculous because they had them for many years beforehand.  After all, we supplied them.  The thought that we invaded to depose a dangerous dictator for humanitarian reasons is also ridiculous because we looked the other way for years because Saddam was an ally in our cold war against Iran.

The Iraq War was a business decision, pure and simple.  They have oil and we needs lots of it.  All three Bush administrations have been bought and paid for by the petroleum industry, and they've gotten disgustingly wealthy as payment for their financing of three elections.

[rjs246]

The thought that we invaded to depose a dangerous dictator for humanitarian reasons is also ridiculous because we looked the other way for years because Saddam was an ally in our cold war against Iran.

While I agree with the rest of your post I disagree here. It's never too late to put a bullet in the head of genocidal maniacs, even if they were once in bed with us.

[Geowhizzer]

Don't forget about No Child Left Behind.

Don't get me started on that clusterfarg.

[rjs246]

No please, get started...

[Geowhizzer]

1.  The focus on the standardized test is asinine.  I am not saying that there should be none, but the amount of testing already being done - with more being added - is completely overboard.  Right now, we're testing reading, math, science, writing and grammar, with civics being added within two years.  We lose upwards of two weeks just for testing purposes.  In my opinion, only the skills (writing-reading-math) need to be tested.  If you can do those three things, you can learn the rest.  By week two of testing, the kids are done.

2.  On top of that testing, every course now has a district-mandated pre- and post- test.  We had a district-approved waiver for a specialized curriculum that was extremely popular with the parents and the students, but that had to be dropped to fall in line with the pre- and post- test.

3.  I have a nephew that is profoundly retarded.  According to the original draft of NCLB, he was going to be put in regular classes to "learn" standard cucciuclum, and was going to be given the F-CAT (Florida's standardized test) along with the rest of the students.  My nephew at the time was 14, could not walk, talk, still used a diaper, and has next to no cognitive ability, and is prone to screech at regular intervals.  That would have been a good situation for the teacher and the students that had to learn and take the damn test.  My sister actually had to get a waiver and approval from the state board of education.

4.  The system is set up that many schools actually "suspend" their lowest and trouble-making students to keep them from ruining their scores.  My school didn't (believe me, I had one of those testing with me), but there have been some in my district. 

5.  The song-and-dance is that students are going to be held back if their test scores are not to grade level.  So far in 8th grade that hasn't been the case (unless course grades are also failing), but in third grade there are.  Assuming that the student will remain in school, that sets up the prospect of your 12, 13, or 14 year old son or daugher being in a class with a 16, 17 or 18 year old.  I currently have one 16 year old and two about ready to turn that age in my 8th grade class, and that may actually get worse.

6.  The high stakes aspect of this will scare away good teachers.  There is a local school (Immokalee High - high percentage of Hispanic Migrant farm workers) who has received failing grades three years in a row.  Basically, they cleaned house:  principal fired, teachers reassigned - forced transfer - or let go.  Some of those teachers are as good as I am, but they were reassigned or fired while I received a bonus because my students - in a more suburban setting, with a fair percentage of Hispanic students, but not migrants - tested better.  Other teachers were forced-transfered to that school, which is 20-30 miles from where most of the teachers are living.  What good teacher is, where the starting salary is about $40,000, is going to put him or herself in a posiiton where he is likely to fail, and perhaps kill his chances of extending his career?

7.  The near-psychosis level of attention paid to the test is hurting the kids in that the test is pretty much all they'll be covering.  I know that in 8th grade math, at least a solid week is given simply to teach the kids HOW TO WRITE THEIR ANSWERS IN THE BOOK.  As it is not a simple process (not just a bubble in the answer, especially in Math), the kids have to be taught this, or they'll get those answers wrong.

I could go on, but this is enough verbiage for the time being.

[Sgt PSN]

No please, get started...

Now look what you started.  Are you happy now?