South Carolina's Football Coach Mad

Michael O'Brien at Phi Beta Cons has this story:

News out of the University of South Carolina today, where Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier is steaming mad that two of his recruits won't be at practice this week...because they weren't admitted to the school.

This isn't the first time this has happened to Spurrier, and now he's making veiled threats at leaving if the school doesn't relax its admissions standards for athletes.

Sure, the idea of the scholar-athlete may be a bit antiquated, but can coaches at least put up a façade of academic integrity?

O'Brien hints at something that is sort of boiling underneath the surface of big time college sports, that is Division I football and basketball. Schools make a ton of cash on these sports, often making enough on these two sports to support the entire athletic department and even then most athletic departments operate in the red. In order to keep competing on the national level, schools like South Carolina and most other Div. I schools sort of "relax" entrace standards already to get "student-athletes" into school.

The NCAA is attempting to beef up the standards a little, but the economics of the situation demand that schools fudge the numbers in order to draw high quality athletes even if as students they wouldn't make the cut. Athletic conferences split money for TV and radio rights. Schools sign deals with equipment providers worth millions. Alumni contribute heavily based upon the success of the school's sports teams. The better the program, the more the money flows.

Yet, obstensibly, athletic scholarships are designed to provide education to athletes. But if the student can't get into the school, who should shoulder the blame, the school for not bowing to the needs of the athletic department or the coach for recruiting borderline students?

The School Supply Tax

This weekend, my wife and I took our girls to Target to buy school supplies for my oldest daughter. The Peanut is starting Kindergarten this year and we dutifully took the school supply list (below) to buy the supplies. My wife had picked up the list from Peanut's school and I had not seen it until yesterday.

The longer I looked at the list, the madder I got. Here is the list:

1 black & white composition book
1 pack of yellow pencils
1 pack of colored pencils
1 pack of colored, washable, markers
1 zippered storage container (5" x 8")
1 24-pack of crayons (labeled with child's name)(preferably Crayola)
3 pocket folders (with prongs, 2 yellow and 1 green)
1 pair of child-size scissors (we prefer Fiskar brand-labeled with child's name)
6 large glue sticks
1 box of tissues
1 box of gallon-size ziploc bags
1 pack of stickers (seasonal or character)
4-6 pack of thin dry erase markers (we prefer Expo)

For boys only:
1 box of snack-size ziploc bags
1 bottle of hand sanitizer (not soap)
For girls only:
1 pack of sanitizing wipes
1 box of sandwich-size ziploc bags

All of this, in addition to a new backpack, a new lunchbox and clothes we have yet to buy. Now, I know, I didn't spend a lot of money on these items since Target and Wal-Mart sell all of these items for really cheap.

My beef comes with the items in italics above. More and more, the school supply lists are including materials for the teachers' use in class--supplies that in my mind should be provided by the schools. By providing these supplies for the school, we are paying another school tax--a tax we shouldn't have to pay and a tax that goes up every year and disproporionately affects parents with several children in the schools.

I realize that tissues and sanitizers help reduce the spread of colds and viruses and are thus valuable, arguably necessary, items (although by how much the spread of viruses and bacteria is reduced would be a wonderful study to conduct because I would argue not very much). I still don't know what the ziplocs are for right now, particularly the three different sizes, but I suppose I will find out. Dry erase markers clearly will not be for my daughter's use, since dry erase markers, unless used on a dry erase board, are quite permanent.

I pay a pretty penny in federal, state, and local taxes that support my local schools. I do so grudgingly and did so even when my kids are not in the schools. Why aren't the schools providing tissues, sanitizers and dry erase markers?

For parents with the means to buy supplies, we are expected to buy supplies. For children from families without means, these supplies are either provided free or at reduced cost (although just about everyone can find a quarter for a pack of crayons or pencils). Clearly the issue is not solely about money.

The trend of more and more parental input in supply matters is troubling. As school spending has skyrocketed over the past 30 years or so, it seems as though less and less is being provided by the schools. Parents are being asked to dig into their wallets for items that would reasonably be considered paid for through taxes. Why can't the school buy sanitizing wipes and tissues? Why aren't huge bottles of Purell not available in every classroom courtesy of the county (which would seem to have an interest in healthy kids)? Why can't the county supply dry erase markers? On that score, why does a teacher need 4-6 dry erase markers from every kid (call it 20 in a class)? What are 80-120 dry erase markers for any way?

My question is why do I and every other parent have to provide these supplies?

The answer, this school supply list is a scam, it is a "tax," a means of forcing parents to pay more for the public education system beyond the personal needs of their child and their already hefty tax payments. The school system gets the parents to buy "school supplies" so the system doesn't have to do the heavy lifting of determining what supplies are needed and how to pay for them. The school doesn't have to manage inventory, track useage rates, and all the other matters involved in supply provision and control. If schools need something or the teachers need something, they simply add it to the list of "school supplies" for each pupil and then "tax" each student to provide for the common "good." It doesn't matter to the schools, for there is a steady stream of new parents and new students each year to "tax."

The school supply tax is the perfect governmental scheme of passing responsibility onto the "tax payer" and shirking accountability for the use of the taxes.

Update (8/7/07, 3:16pm): In response to Kimberly's comments. As to the tissues, I too had tissues in my supplies, but they were for my use, not a "tax" levied upon each child. The school provided tissues in my elementary school, so there was no supply tax.

Thanks for shedding light on the ziploc bags. However, it still does not address why the school needs three different sizes and an entire box for each kid. My daughter has had a bag for her pre-school that she never lost in two years.

Kimberly mentions that she bought big bottles of Purell (or a similar product) herself. This is exactly the kind of expense that neither teachers nor the parents should have to bear. I hope that Kimberly claims these expenses on her tax return every year as unreimbursed employment expenses.

While teachers have a tax law out, parents do not. The school supply tax actually increases over time as teh supplies for classroom use actually expand during the child's elementary school education (although they tend to drop in middle and high school).

I know the outlay is not large--perhaps ten dollars for my family, but it is the principle of the whole matter. As school budgets have expanded, school provided supplies on what I would consider basics have actually declined. Furthermore, because these supplies are a tax levied at the beginning of each year, the schools, I am positive, have no data on useage. Does a school or a class really go through 120 dry erase markers in a year? Does it really use 20 bottles of hand sanitizer? What happens to any surplus supplies at the end of the year? There is no data and no accountability for this tax.

Art in the Schools

As a result of NCLB and the states' inability to focus on more than one thing at a time, most art instruction in schools has been cut. Of course, art instruction was declining prior to NCLB, if I remember correctly. Joanne Jacobs notes a study which says that art doesn't improve math or reading skills (which is why it was cut). But at the same time, art is important, if only for art's sake.

Some studies have found students who take art are above-average students. Winner and Hetland see a chicken-egg problem: “academically strong schools tend to have strong arts programs” and “families who value academic achievement also value achievement in the arts.”

I don't know about the chicken and egg argument, but art is important if for no other reason than it provides a creative outlet for students.

There is much great art in the world and it would be a shame if students did understand art, didn't try to create art and didn't enjoy art. I will admit that if you put be in front of two paintings by famous artists, unless I know the history of the pieces, I couldn't tell which belonged to which artist, but I can nonetheless appreciate the art itself.

Could our obsessive focus on math and reading be costing us a generation of artists who might otherwise be on the level of Picasso, Pollack or even Warhol?

Pre-Emption as Political Strategy

One of my favority blogs, Clear Commentary, carried a post last week called Ron Paul & the Danger of Non-Intervention, in which he describes presidential candidate Ron Paul's approach to foriegn policy as both dangerous to the world and dangerous to U.S. interests worldwide:

From an ideological perspective, Paul's paradigm trivializes the exportation of American values of freedom and the rule of law by arguing they're tantamount to American imperialism. That's a recipe for brazen inaction not because Paul disdains freedom but because he is so studiously reticent to introduce it to others, as though we were imposing totalitarianism.

His argument might have more credibility in a Cold War environment where geopolitical forces were well-defined and checks and balances kept opponents on guard and wary of provoking the opponent. Such is clearly not the case today, because we know that al-Qaeda is operating in about 70 countries worldwide, most conspicuously in Iraq.

Add to that bin Laden's pledge to destroy America and Iranian president Ahmadinejad's to "wipe Israel off the map," and Mr. Paul's policy of non-interventionism is not merely naive and daft, it's downright lethal.

Over the weekend, in response to a comment regarding the the references to pre-emptive military action in the war on terror. There are clearly times when pre-emptive military action, while deigned by the "civilized" world as imperilistic, is not only apt, but may even be necessary to prevent bloodshed on a wider scale. Obviously, despite the deaths to American soldiers and civilians, it is far better to take the fight to terrorists on their home soil than on ours. In a
folloow-up post, Philip Mella writes:

The argument for studied inaction, or "non-intervention," as the Paulites prefer to call it, is only credible in a Cold War environment and, as President Reagan demonstrated, it's often the case that the mere threat of military hegemony is sufficient to topple a putative superpower such as the Soviet Union.


Therefore, this writer's assertions notwithstanding, pre-emption is, in fact, an effective strategy, and history clarifies that employing it in a timely manner can save lives and preserve resources, if leaders have political will and understanding of what's at stake.

War is not pretty and war is not desired, especially by those who have to the killing and the dying, but soemtimes it is necessary and not always when attacked. Sometimes war, in the advance of freedom around the world, must be undertaken pre-emptively. Simply burying our head in the sand and hoping the Islamic terrorists will go away and stop bothering us is not only naive, but suicidal.

Again, it is better to fight in the streets of Baghdad than the streets of New York.

Althouse on Dexterity

Ann Althouse: on modern electronics (specifically the iPhone) "Isn't it funny that "all thumbs" is now an indication of dexterity?"

Manchester United win Community Sheild

Manchester United won the FA Community Shield match yesterday in penalty kicks. Due to home duties (I was hanging a ceiling fan), I did not see much of this match. I did see the last ten minutes of the match and the penalty shootout. I kind of wished I had seen Ryan Giggs' goal in the run of play since the highlights showed a fantastic blast. But I saw some spectacular goal-keeping by Man. U's Edwin van der Sar in the penalties.

On three straight attempts by Chelsea, van der Sar stopped three penalties in a performance unlike any I have ever seen. Chelsea didn't miss the frame (as sometimes happens), van der Sar literally stopped all three as his teammates buried three penalty kicks to win the shoot out 3-0.

The Community Shield, the opening exhibition prior to the start of the English soccer season, raises charitable funds for distribution according to team desires. Manchester United has won the Shield 17 times including yesterday.

Washington Freedom Win W-League Title

While much of the U.S. Soccer fandom was watching MLS games or the English FA Community Sheild Match, The Washington Freedom won the 2007W-League Championship with a solid 3-1 win over the Atlanta Silverbacks.

Washington's Rebecca Moros scored a goal less than one minuted into the game with a floater over Atlanta's goalkeeper. U.S. international player Christie Welsh added a second goal with about five minutes left in the first half. The second goal resulted from a beautiful pass beyond the Atlanta back line from Sarah Huffman. Welsh met the ball behind the Atlanta defense placed the shot into the corner for a 2-0 lead going into the break.

Washington's final goal came with a just about five minutes left in the match, when 16-year-old Tiffany McCarty pounced on a poorly handled ball by Atlanta goalkeeper Courtney Cripps and put away Washington's thrid and final goal.

With women's soccer considering a move back into professional ranks, the quality of play is improving. There continues to be a fair bit of sloppy play, but part of it may be due to the lack of full-time attention that many of the W-League players can devote to training. Most of the players have day jobs (some of which is soccer coaching, but not all), which relegated their training to evenings and weekends. Some of the W-League players, though, are high school and college players, allowing them to sharpen and refine their skills during the summer in advance of college and high school seasons. Such opporutnities, in a professional training environment, means that the level of play in the high school and college ranks will continue to improve.

The W-League championship weekend did demonstrate quality play though and it will improve over time.

Congratulations to the Washington Freedom and to the Atlanta Silverbacks for their successful runs this year.

The W-League boasts 34 teams in the U.S. and Canada.

Mike Pence On Why He Left Last Night

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence talks about why he walked out last night:

I consider my ability to vote on the floor of the House of Representatives to be a privilege and a duty that I approach with great reflection and forethought.


“Last night, the Republican minority in the Congress won a great victory for the American people, denying welfare benefits to illegal immigrants in the Agriculture Appropriations bill.


“After Republicans prevailed, and after the gavel fell, the Democratic majority reopened the vote to ensure that illegal immigrants would be entitled to welfare benefits under this bill.


“Along with my Republican colleagues, I walked out on behalf of the overwhelming majority of the American people who do not want illegal immigrants to receive welfare benefits.

While that may be nice, and I am not convinced that the Democrats didn't engage in some shady practices, I am not convinced that Pence and the Republicans weren't being just as partisan.

College Dean Charged in Student Hazing Death

This is not your typical defendant in a fraternity hazing death:

Rider University's Dean of Students and the Director of Greek Life are among five people charged in the death of a freshman from alcohol intoxication after a fraternity party at the school.

Gary DeVercelly, 18, of Long Beach, Calif., died on March 30.

Mercer County police charged 51-year-old Anthony Cambell, the school's Dean of Students, and 31-year-old Ada Badgley, the Director of Greek Life, with aggravated hazing.

Prosecutors are not disclosing what evidence or testimony led the grand jury to return charges against the university officials. Three fraternity brothers of the deceased were also charged with hazing.

Upon admission to the hospital DeVercelly's blood alcohol content was .426, 5 and a half times higher than the legal limit to drive.

I attended college after having been in the Navy, so my days of drunken debauchery had passed, having learned the hard way a couple of times about the pain of recovering from a drinking binge. While my fraternity had parties (and being one of the few people of age, I bought a fair share of kegs), I was also the one who tended to keep an eye out on things since I had learned to nurse a beer for going on two or three hours. Our parties always features key masters and quite a few Brothers didn't drink so there was never a shortage of drivers to take people home.

It is unfortunate that every year, and it does happen every year, that we hear of this kind of news. A combination of the hubris of the young, lax enforcement and lack of personnel to enforce drinking policies and laws leads to incidents like this. Sadly, DeVercelly is not the first person to die in such an incident and even more sadly, he won't be the last, no matter how hard universities try to curb this behavior.

House Goes Low-Tech Voting

Computers rule the world--and the House as a computer malfunction today threw the House of Representatives into a frenzy when the voting computer stopped working. On the heels of last nights debacle, the glitch was not welcome:

The House's electronic voting system malfunctioned at approximately 2pm as lawmakers began a vote on a procedural motion sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.). Projectors that usually display how each member voted and show a tally of votes were not working, although votes were still being recorded on computers at various locations in the House chamber.

The mishap came during the final two days of legislative activity before a month-long recess, a time when tensions run high as lawmakers grind out last-minute agreements on a bevy of bills. Many lawmakers were already agitated from a rancorous episode last night when Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled closed a vote before the tally was clear. McNulty apologized to his colleagues this morning.

The broken computers prompted protracted squabbles among lawmakers Friday afternoon. Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) questioned how they could vote if they were unable to see the usual tally. Lawmakers are accustomed to seeing how their colleagues are voting while they mull their own decision.

Conspiracy theorists will not doubt link the two events, and I must admit, something does smell fishy in the House.

Fortunately, the Clerk's office has a month to make sure the thing is working after the House recesses for the next month in its traditional summer break.

The Wisdom of Crowds: A Review

Science fiction/Fantasy writer Piers Anthony wrote a series of books call the Incarnations of Immortality, of which the lead book was called On a Pale Horse about a man names Zane, who becomes the incarnation of Death (who rides a pale hourse). About midway through the book, Nature (another incarnation) and Zane carry on a coversation, a lecture really, about the nature of thinking. During the lecture, Nature tells him of sequential thinking, diagrammed like this -----, thinking in parallel --==-, and intuitive thinking --|||--. The discussion becomes important in the novel's climax as Zane tries to overcome the crux of the novel.

In many ways, Juames Surowiecki's book, the Wisdom of Crowds, reminds me of the parallel thinking segment, where working on different parts of a problem can often lead to a solution much faster. Surowiecki's premise, that experts are no more likely and indeed less likely, to arrive at a correct answer than a group of free thinking, but informed individuals. Looking at situations as diverse as picking a President to playing on Who Wants to be a Millionaire to the manner in which we navigate crowed sidewalks, Surowiecki looks at instances where the wisdom of the grouop is much more effective and efficient than a single expert.

In order for a crowd to work effectively, Surowiecki asserts that it needs four specific criteria--and no crowd size is not one of them--Independence from the other members, diversity of opinion (groupthink leads to bad decisions), decentralized thinking and operation and a effective method for aggregating the opinions. throughout the book, while explaining these requisites, Surowiecki discusses, using real life examples, of how the absence of these traits leads to poor decision making processes and outcomes.

The application of Surowiecki's theory is practially limitless, but in the current political context, the application can be useful. There is an old saw that says if you are dumb, surround yourself with smart people and if you are smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you. The current political debate surely could benefit from a few more dissenting opinions, both for the Administration and for Congress. By having more dissenting views in a room when decisions are made can lead to better policy and better governing. Of course, in a partisan atmosphere, such independence of thought in either the White House or the offices of Congress simply is not tolerated and the American people suffer.

Despite our belief in the wisdom of experts, and we have many of them and they often make good judgments, Surowiecki is not necessarily knocking the existence of experts because they provide important insights and information. What Surowiecki argues is that experts should only be a part of some decision making processes and that we should simply defer to them on the basis of their expertise. Although he only hints at it, Surowiecki was actually on the verge of an important point.

Not only is the wisdom of crowds useful for problem solving but also has a wonderful predictative ability. The proliferation of polls, particularly political polling, is not just about assessing the mood, but a well designed poll can give hints as to what the future holds as well. Although many political pundits may dismiss polls (and dismissing poorly designed polls is proper), a well designed poll gives a pretty good snapshot in time of what is happening and what will happen in the near future. Often times, when a crowd turns out to be wrong, it is based upon unforseen circumstances, events that could not be anticipated (9/11 for instance) or a lack of information about the decision. While perfect information is impossible though, the crowd does a pretty good job of determining what is going to happen based upon limited information.

Surowiecki's book can get bogged down in details of a given situation, perhaps its most glaring weakness. At other times, Surowiecki, comfortable with his knowledge, fails to bring the reader along with him. Often times, the descriptions of psychological and economic experiments fail to properly illustrate his point or leave the reader wondering what is happeing.

Many of the situations and institutions discussed in the book lie at the heart of American society. The foundations of our society, that of a representative democracy, capitalism and the open market, public opinions and mores, and other examples of community and collective action, are based on the wisdom of crowds. Indeed, the fundamental precept of our government is the belief in the wisdom of ordinary people to govern themselves. But the true power of the wisdom of crowds is not just parallel thinking, --===--, but a combination of parallel thinking combined with intuitive thinking, that is dozens, hundredes, thousands, even millions of people coming to conclusions with incomplete information using parallel intuitive thinking. That is after all, how we behave on a regular basis, making decisions with imperfect information. A crowd simply aggregates that decision making into a collective wisdom.

Capitol Warned of Possible Terror Attack

From The Raw Story

An increased threat of another al Qaeda attack between now and Sep. 11 of this year has caused Capitol Police officials to step up security on Capitol Hill, Roll Call reported.

An unnamed Capitol Police source told Roll Call that Congressional security officials were recently made aware of the potential threat by federal anti-terrorism authorities.

“Given the world situation and recently released snippet from al-Qaida threatening to attack Washington, we’re just being a tad more vigilant if that’s possible,” Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer told the Capitol Hill newspaper. “Although, if you’re ready for a four-alarm fire at any time, it’s hard to be more vigilant.”

Gainer, who chairs the Capitol Police Board, said he noticed an increased police presence on the Hill, but he would not disclose to the newspaper any specific threats or dates.

Fortunately, Congress will be out of session for most of the next six weeks, but still not a good development.

Sen. Idiot Leahy and Chief Justice John Roberts

Ed Whalen gives a little fisking to Sen. Idiot Leahy:

In an interview with Politico, Senator Leahy offered these two pearls of wisdom about Chief Justice Roberts and the Supreme Court:

1. “I think in his actions and the actions in which he has joined, he [Chief Justice Roberts] has made the court an arm of the Republican Party.”

2. “They (the Republicans) say they don’t want an activist Supreme Court, but this is the most activist Supreme Court we have ever seen, running roughshod over the Constitution, like Plessy v. Ferguson did.”

Aside from the blatant hostility and the impugning of the character of the Chief Justice of the United States, Leahy's quotes are without support. Whalen writes:

Less than six months ago, Senator Leahy defended the principle of judicial independence: “It is most unfortunate that some in this country have chosen to use dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric when talking about judges.… This high-pitched rhetoric should stop, for the sake of our judges and the independence of the Judiciary.” Leahy’s own crude political attack on the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court is, admittedly, a few steps removed from the specific examples that he condemned, but it is nonetheless irresponsible, especially coming from a chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Let me be clear: If Leahy wants to try to present a sustained, coherent criticism of Chief Justice Roberts and the Supreme Court, he should be welcome to do so. But that’s a far cry from his reckless remarks to Politico. (Emphasis added.)

WHAT!!!! RNC supports Bono's poverty initiative -- The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

This Washington Times headline RNC supports Bono's poverty initiativesmacked me across the face and at first I thought I read it wrong, but there it is. The lead:

The Republican National Committee yesterday took the first step toward endorsing a proposal by Irish rock star Bono to spend an estimated $30 billion in U.S. taxes to eliminate global poverty — a move some unhappy conservative RNC members labeled a step toward socialism.

Look, if Bono wants to spend his money to end global poverty, good for him. If thousands or millions of Americans do the same because of his leadership on the issue--good for them, but spending taxpayer dollars is not a good idea.

In the 1960's the United States launched a War on Poverty and that went well. While the poor in America is atronomically better off than the poor in other parts of the world, the fact is that we have poverty in this country. Spending some $30 billion overseas on poverty is not likely to actually end poverty.

Kos: "We Are The Center!"

OOOKKKAAAYYY!!!

Hat Tip: Instapundit.

Well Duh! Rove Protected by Executive Privilege

The assertion of executive privilege for Karl Rove was asserted by White House Counsel Fred Fielding yesterday in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Like we didn't see that coming.

Dan Froomkin was said the letter was "nevertheless surprising in its breadth."

"Based upon the advice of the Department of Justice, the President . . . has requested that I advise and inform you that Mr. Rove, as an immediate presidential advisor, is immune from compelled congressional testimony about matters that arose during his tenure and that relate to his official duties in that capacity. Accordingly, Mr. Rove is not required to appear in response to the Judiciary Committee subpoena to testify about such matters, and he has been directed not to appear."

Of course, Senator Idiot Leahy will no doubt bluster about the obstructionism of the White House and the secrecy of the Bush Administration. But even if a Democrat inhabited the White House, this is the right decision and the right reasons.

House of Representatives Looks Like the House of Commons

One of the neat things you can see on C-SPAN late at night is a regular replays of the Prime Minister's Question Time from the British House of Commons. The decorum in the House of Commons is, well common, with lots of boos, whistles and shouts. It is entertaining in some respects. Well last night, it looks like the U.S. House of Representatives took a page from their British bretern and got a little rancorous last night:

In a massive flare-up of partisan tensions, Republicans walked out on a House vote late Thursday night to protest what they believed to be Democratic maneuvers to reverse an unfavorable outcome for them.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and an unprecedented low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber.

The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.

Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.

regardless of who was right and who was wrong, the event shows that the partisanship in the House has gotten so bad that the Members don't know how to behave themselves.

The behavior of Democrats is further suspicious regarding the questionable vote, as the Politico reports:

When Democrats finally moved to consider the spending bill as the last vote of the night, furious Republicans left the chamber en masse to protest the maneuver. The House eventually recessed at 11:18 p.m. But Republicans quickly discovered that there was no longer any record of the controversial vote and immediately charged Democrats with erasing the bad result.

“Obviously, the Democrats don’t want to stand up against illegal immigration – so much so that they’re willing to cheat in order to win a vote,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said in an e-mail. “They’re desperate – and it shows.”

The official House website did not show a record of the vote as of 1 a.m. Friday.

The vote results are on the House website now. The vote officially shows a 214-216 count, so the irregularities in the conduct of the vote are troubling. Of course, the Democrats, had they been a bit more prepared, should have avoided the whole incident by making sure they had the votes beforehand.

Update 11:52am: David Freddoso calls it Just Plain Cheating:

They just replayed the whole mess from the House last night on C-Span. I spoke to Novak and he doesn't remember anything quite like this happening before. Pretty outrageous, really. It is about as blatant an abuse of power as you can have in a legislative body, to cheat on a vote total.


Republicans were playing a game that the minority usually plays — you have your guys vote with the other side, then have them change at the last minute. This forces the majority to come up with votes quickly. Although on close issues they would rather spare their endangered members in swing districts and give them a free vote, the majority leadership then has to tell their endangered members to bite their tongues and vote the party line.

Two Democrats changed their votes to ensure that the measure would fail, but then three Republicans did the same. The vote total was 215-213 in favor of the Republican motion to recommit. At that moment, Rep. Mike McNulty ( D-N.Y.), who was in the Speaker's chair, gavelled out the vote, thinking that it was a tie and the motion had failed. But he had miscounted — the motion had actually passed. The Democrats were only able to change this by cheating and changing more votes after the gavel.

No wonder this Congress has a 14% approval rating.

Anti-Race Preference Languages Passes the House?

This bit of news did not make the mainstream media, at least I didn't see it.

an amendment to the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, which would bar preferences in federal contracting, passed the House of Representatives.

snip

The language, introduced by Congressman Tim Walberg, reads: “An amendment to prohibit the use of funds be[ing] used by the Department of Transportation to promulgate regulations based on race, ethnicity, or sex.”

In other words, these agencies can’t consider race, ethnicity, or sex when hiring contractors with federal funds. No more set-asides.

Administration to Crack Down on "Questionable" SSNs

La Shawn Barber has the story of an effort by the Bush Administration to start cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants:

So George Bush’s mega-billion-dollar agency is, at long last, doing something useful.

According to the article, employees with “questionable” Social Security numbers will have 60 days to resolve the issue. If they can’t, employers must fire them or face fines ranging from $250 to $10,000 per illegal.

To get a handle on illegal “immigration,” we must go to the main source of the problem. I’ve ranted often enough about illegal aliens on this blog, but now’s the time to focus on businesses and individuals who hire illegal aliens.

If the executive branch does its job and actually enforces immigration laws, it would go a long way toward stemming the tide of foreigners crossing the border or overstaying visas, if the effort is combined with cutting off welfare to non-citizens. (No welfare for legal residents, either.) With no means of support, perhaps they’ll return home. (link added)

I too think this is an idea long overdue.

However, I doubt that La Shawn's idea of no welfare for legal residents will fly. Despite the fact that they are not citizens, long lines of court precedents indicate that even non-citizens can still receive welfare benefits--provided they are legal residents.

Automotive X-Prize announces 31 competitors for 100mpg challenge - Autoblog

In the same vein as the Space X-Prize spurred the development of a private market for space travel (admittedly in its gestational stages, the X-Prize Foundation is holding a competition with a bit more realistic goal, the development of a commercially viable 100 mile per gallon car. The Automotive X-Prize competition has garnered 31 competitors

The Automotive X-Prize is designed to get engineers thinking outside the box in terms of fuel economy. The goal is to develop a "commercially viable" vehicle that will get at least 100 mpg. How it's done is up to the individual teams, but they have to keep production in mind to be eligible. They even have to show a business plan proving that they can sell at least 10,000 units a year. The competition starts with peer reviews next year, and then the actual vehicle competitions in 2009.

Cool.

Soccer's W-League Championships This Weekend

While I mentioned that this weekend will see the opening of the English Premier League season with the Community Sheild match, here in the United States, there will be a championed crowned in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) W-League. This weekend, the Atlanta Silverbacks, the Seattle Sounders, the Washington Freedom and the Rochester Rhinos will gather in Rochester, NY for the semi-finals and finals of the W-League.

One of the unique storylines of the final four is that it is the first time since Canadian teams joined the league in 2000 that a representative from Canada has not reached the league semifinals. The Ottawa Fury had reached the semifinals the last four years and the Vancouver Whitecaps in five of the last six years, winning twice. The Toronto Inferno were the first team to reach the final four in 2000.

Another unique storyline is that all four teams are part of a larger club. The Sounders, Silverbacks and Rhinos are each affiliated with a USL First Division men’s club with Seattle and Rochester each accounting for three USL-1 titles. The Freedom, a legacy of the former 2003 WUSA Champions, have established an elite youth system, as have the Silverbacks. In fact, the Freedom produced the first USL Super-20 League women’s champion last year and are looking to repeat this weekend at the North American Finals in Epping, New Hampshire. The Silverbacks had teams in five of the 10 brackets at the Super Y-League North American Finals last fall.

Having seen a few Washington Freedom games this season, the Freedom have shown a high level of play and as the highest seed remaining in the playoffs, should be considered favorites this weekend.

As the USL develops, with multiple divisions and a top to bottom formulation of teams, affiliations, and levels, from two professional men's divisions, to development leagues and youth programs, the development of soccer in America is taking a decidedly Eurpopen flavor with clubs fielding multiple teams. Along with the MLS, which is also beginning to field development teams as well, I can imagine a merger between the two organizations soon, with a nation wide, multiple division format of professional sides, and professional women's soccer with multiple divisions, and premier youth development and amateur leagues that allow high school and college players to develop and train in professional environments without jeopardizing their college eligibility.

The level of play in the upper divisions of the W-League puts the U.S. league at the top of the women's game worldwide. A good showing by the U.S. Women's National team in the Women's World Cup should boost already strong interest in the sport.

English Premier League Set to Open on Sunday

With the MLS season heating up in the run to the play-offs, soccer fans everywhere are gearing up for the start of the European season and for me, the opening of the English Premier League.

The English leagues opening game of the season is a charity game known as the Community Shield. The game, which is played between the winners of the FA Cup and the Premier League champions raises money for charities, although that is not always been the purpose of the match, nor the participants. Between 1974, when thet Community Shield match (then called the Charity Sheild) was first played as the prologue to the season and 2000, the game helped raise some $10 million that has been distributed to charities nominated by the participating clubs. That may not sound like a great deal, but the clubs also run their own charity operations.

This year, FA Cup Winners Chelsea will take on the Premier League Champions Manchester United at Wembly stadium on Sunday. The rest of the league will begin matches on August 11. I can't wait!!

SCHIP Reauthorized and Expanded

Yesterday, the House passed the reauthorization of the ?State Children's Health Insurance Program in a largely party line vote. As passed, this bill is not only unnecessary, but foolhardy in its scope and plans.

No one, not even the most callous anti-big government libertarian can sensibly argue against the original purpose of the program--to provide health insurance for poor children, those with families up to 200 percent of federal poverty level, or about $40,000 per year for a family of four. But as the Arizona Republic points out, SCHIP has expanded far beyond its original purpose:

The problem is that SCHIP has expanded beyond its original scope, as so often happens with federal programs. In the early years, many states couldn't use all their SCHIP money, so the feds permitted excess funds to be used by other states to extend coverage to children beyond 200 percent of the poverty level and even adults.

In Arizona, the SCHIP plan is called KidsCare. A Government Accountability Office study found, however, that 56 percent of the people enrolled in "KidsCare" were actually adults.

Fifteen states now provide SCHIP coverage for children above 200 percent of the federal poverty level, and 14 states cover adults.

Congressional Democrats propose not only to fund these existing expanded programs but provide enough funding for other states to substantially expand eligibility, as well. In all, Democrats are proposing to more than double SCHIP funding, allowing universal coverage up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, as Gov. Janet Napolitano has proposed for Arizona.

That would provide coverage up to a family income of about $60,000 a year. Since the median family income in the United States is just over $46,000, this reaches well into the middle class.

Now there are a fair number of Americans without health insurance, around 45 million according to most published reports and that number fluctuates a fair bit, between 43 million and 47 million depending on the year and employment conditions. A not insignificant number of these, indeed most, of these Americans without health care are working poor. Most states provide a method by which these working poor can buy into Medicaid for health insurance purposes.

Expansion of the program essentially doubles up the health care spending and places a burden upon the states. Granted, SCHIP money is provided by the federal government in grants to the states, but expansion of the program to cover people up to 300% of federal poverty level

The problem with the whole matter, of course, is paying for it. The Arizona Republic points out that the program is funded by stupidity:

To pay for the SCHIP expansion, Democrats are proposing to raise tobacco taxes by up to 61 cents a pack.

Tobacco taxes are highly regressive. So, basically, Democrats are proposing to tax the poor to pay for the health care of the middle class.

Tobacco taxes are also highly uncertain. Health-care advocates like them because the evidence is that they do reduce consumption. However, states and the federal government have already loaded up various programs, many involving health care and children, on their backs. The odds are very strong that tobacco taxes will not produce the revenues being obligated.

Increasing the tax on cigarettes does several things over the long haul. First, it is a disincentive for younger people to start smoking and keep smoking--it is simply too expensive a habit. If fewer people are buying cigarettes, there are fewer cigarette taxes collected. Thus there is less money for programs like SCHIP.

Second, higher taxes achieves one of the government's other efforts--reducing smoking. Some people who smoke now may make the calculation that it is too expensive and attempt to stop smoking, with the same attendenat consequences.

Third, higher cigarette taxes disproportionately affect poor people, the same people who Congress is trying to cover. A $.61 increase in cigarette taxes can be absorbed by richer people without a great deal of impact, but not poor people.

But has anyone in the Democratic party ever tried to reconcile their taxation of tobacco and the reliance on the continued sale of tobacco with their goal of stopping smoking for the health reasons? Sounds to me that they are of two minds about this.

The expansion of SCHIP to cover poor adults was an abomination in and of itself. Increassing the eligibility to 300% of poverty level is unnecessary and wasteful given the fact that other options exist. To fund it with already overburnened cigarette taxes is simply shortsighted.

A Teaching Moment From the District of Columbia - HUMAN EVENTS

Terence P. Heffrey breaks down the per pupil spending of the DC Public Schools in light of the recent debacle of textbooks being late and no air conditioning in some schools.

The District also spent a lot of its own money, racking up a combined local and federal total of $15,414 in spending per pupil in average daily attendance. That, too, was more than any state, nearly doubling the national average of $8,899.

Given that half the District’s school buildings don’t have working air-conditioners and half the schools won’t have their books on time, you might be tempted to guess that the District spends more money on, say, teachers than on facilities and administrators. Don’t give in to the temptation.

In 2003-2004, says NCES, the District spent $1,869 per student on “capital outlays.” That was money “for the acquisition of land and buildings; building construction, remodeling, and additions; the initial installation or extension of service systems and other built-in equipment; and site improvement.” Additionally, the District spent $1,464 per student on “operation and maintenance.” This included “salary, benefits, supplies, and contractual fees for supervision of operations and maintenance, operating buildings (heating, lighting, ventilating, repair, and replacement), care and upkeep of grounds and equipment, vehicle operations and maintenance (other than student transportation), security, and other operations and maintenance services.”

That means the District spent a total of $3,333 per student to make sure there were enough new and remodeled buildings and sufficient maintenance staff to keep the air-conditioners going. Of all the states, only frozen Alaska approached this level of spending for facilities and maintenance, spending a combined $3,220 per student on these two categories.

The district also spent nearly $1,000 on two levels of administrators per student to ensure textbook purchases. Pathetic!

DC Public Schools have been a long running nightmare for a decades. Between poor and crumbling facilities and poor management, the schools have been an administrative failure for a long time. A great many times, new superintendants come into DC promising to reform the education and they make noise about strenghtening curricula, improving the quality of teachers, reducing class sizes, etc. Butr rarely is any attention paid to the actual business operations of the school bureaucracy.

Educators and public school advocates will tell you over and over that education cannot be run like a business with market forces in plat etc. While that is debatable and a worthy debate, certainly the business practices of the schools can be run much more efficiently. If Amazaon.com can track hundreds of thousands of titles, in multiple locations, and maked hundreds of thousands of deliveries per day and know exactly where everything is, sure a school disctrict should be able to do the same.

Education Measurements

Kevin Carey talks about the NCLB reauthorization, and the proposal by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education & Workforce Committee and principal guide for the bill, to include multiple measures as part of the accountability package.

As this gets discussed in the coming weeks, months, and possibly years, it's important to understand what's at stake. Nearly all the back-and-forth will be about what gets measured. But equally important--perhaps more important--is who does the measuring.

The multiple measures idea stems from one the most common--and correct--criticisms of NCLB: schools are rated almost exclusively based on state assessments in reading and math. This system can be inaccurate and reductive--not only are we limited to one way of measurement, via standardized tests, but we're also limited in what's measured. Subjects like art, music, social studies, etc. are left out, along with the non-academic skills and character traits that schools are charged with teaching students. By expanding school measures beyond once-a-year tests, the thinking goes, we can get a broader, more nuanced, more accurate sense of what schools are really doing for their students.

A worthy goal, to be sure. But here's the problem: in many multiple measure scenarios, it's the schools themselves that will be doing the measuring. And that undermines one of the great virtues of NCLB: the separation of those being held accountable from the process by which they're judged. That independence is based on a rock-solid understanding of human nature: people can't be wholly accountable to themselves.

Carey is completely right, you cannot allow the persons being held accountable to do the measuring. The measurements must be as "third" party as possible. But even now, we are not at a true independent assessment, no matter what model of assessment you choose.

I talked about multiple test format accoutability schemes and the benefits that can be garnered by relying on more than one test as a measurement of education success. But even in my scheme, the idea is that the testing must be done by an outside group. The fact is that even now we don't have a true third party evaluation. The states generally choose the test and administer the test while still having a pretty massive stake in the outcome (states with better schools attract more business and therefore more residents and consequently more tax dollars).

If the who of assessment is so important to objective testing, why are we still allowing the states, let alone the local school systems or even the schools themelves, to do the assessments? If as Carey points out, independent evaluators like outside auditors or tennis judges are important to maintain independence, then the states are not independent enough of an arbiter when it comes to education.

Bill Clinton As Vice President

Aside from the ludcriousness of Bill Clinton serving as his wife's Vice President or being selected by Barack Obama as a running mate (?), this op-ed by law professor Brian Gray offers a completely wrong view of the constitutionality of such an idea.

But what of the Democrats and Bill Clinton? The 24th Amendment [sic, the LA Times Editors corrected this error, which is actually teh 22nd Amendment], adopted in reaction to Franklin Roosevelt's 1944 election to a fourth term, declares that "no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice." Although it was not the focus of the amendment, it is notable that the amendment does not preclude a former two-term president (such as Clinton) from serving as vice president. Nor does it preclude a former two-term president's succession to the presidency for all or part of a third term.

It might seem that the 12th Amendment's dictum that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President" also ought to doom Clinton's chances -- but no again: He is ineligible for election to a third term, but he is constitutionally eligible to succeed to the presidency after election to the vice presidency.

There is, however, one last constitutional wrinkle. The 12th Amendment declares that the members of the electoral college "shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves." This effectively prevents the president and vice president from having the same state residency, because if running mates shared a home state, the electors from that state would be unable to vote for both of them. Thus, unless the former president returns to Arkansas, "Hill-Bill" or Clinton2 is out.

That leaves only one alternative. You heard it here first, Democrats: Obama-(Bill) Clinton 2008!

A law professor at UC Hastings School of Law should know better!! The Constitution, as the Supreme Law of the land cannot be read piecemeal, is written and is interpreted as a complete document, even the Amendments are designed to be read as part of an integrated whole.

The 22nd Amendment added to the definition of the persons eligible to be President the addtional prohibition of serving no more than 8 years. So the eligibility of a president is:

1. A Natural born citizen
2. of at least 35 years of age
3. residing in the United States for 14 years
4. Not been president for more than 6 six years or two terms

To be President and constitutionally eligible for the office of President (and Vice President) the person must meet all of those requirements prior to being sworn in. (In theory someone who is 34 on Election Day and turns 35 prior to their inauguration is eligible). So let us look at Bill Clinton's eligibility to be President:

1. A Natural born citizen-Check, born in Arkansas
2. of at least 35 years of age-check, he made it last time although I don't know his exact age now.
3. residing in the United States for 14 years-check
4. Not been president for more than 6 six years or two terms--oops! Professor Gray knows that Bill Clinton has been president for 8 years

Under the Constitutional criteria for being President, Bill Clinton no longer qualifies. The 12th Amendment reads (it is the last clause):

But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

It seems as though Bill Clinton is done being President or Vice President.

Could Bill Clinton be named to the Cabinet? Sure, but he would be ineligible to assume the office of President should the line of succession law kick in. Just like his Secretary of State Madeline Albright couldn't be president (she was born in Hungary), Bill Clinton can't ascend to the Presidency, he is constitutionally ineligible.

The only Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket we will see, if ever, is between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton is a non-factor.

SCOTUS Babble

That is how Betsy Newmark essentially describes the Linda Greenhouse prayer, er story, about how Chief Justice John Robert's medical scare this week will change his judicial activity.

He lost his privacy, and with it the aura of invincibility that came with his youthful good looks and spectacular career path.

Barely a month ago, he was presiding over the close of a dramatic Supreme Court term in which he and his ideological allies were clearly ascendant. At the top of his game, he promptly flew to Europe for lectures and meetings with the cream of the Continent’s legal establishment.

Then out of the blue, on a clear summer day, he became a middle-age man in need of emergency medical treatment, hospitalized and confronting the implications of a condition that could affect his life in big and small ways like requiring daily medication or making it inadvisable to drive a car.

In October, when he returns to his seat at the center of the Supreme Court bench, will colleagues and courtroom spectators see the same golden youth whose trajectory was unmarked by setback or sorrow? Or will they see someone suddenly vulnerable, with a medical condition that, while treatable and shared by millions, can still inspire fear?

Or to dig deeper, might this encounter with illness even change the way John Roberts sees himself, his job or the world?

Newmark writes:

Greenhouse has given up all pretense of being an objective observer of the Court she covers. Now she's also given up any attempt to base her reporting on actual evidence and facts and descended simply reporting her own wishful thinking.

All too true.

Greenhouse's "article" may have been better suited to appear on the op-ed pages, since that is where opinion should be published, but instead appears on the Supreme Court Memo pages of the New York Times. Greenhouse has an opinion and that is fine, if she can get paid to publish her opinion all the more better for her. But to disguise the opinion as a story strains the already tenuous credibility of the New York Times.

I seriously doubt that a "brush with death" will impact John Roberts' judicial outlook. Chances are he will still live a pretty long life despite technically being an epileptic, and he will still be able to issue opinions and gall liberals when his opinions are based on law, fact and a realistic interpretation of the Constitution, as opposed to a fanciful one.

Bush Drenagment and the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

Many months ago, I lost my ability to read the diaries at Daily Kos. I have such little time to read that I figured it was not worth the effort. Fortunately, there are lots of people willing to wade into the morass, like Peter Barry Chowka, who looked up the Daily Kos reaction to the bridge collapse:

When I heard the news late Wednesday afternoon PT about the Minnesota Interstate 35W bridge collapse, after the initial shock and sadness for the victims, one of my first thoughts was that the Left would try to score points and blame the tragedy on President Bush and the Republicans.


Sure enough, within four minutes of the news breaking nationally at 7:32 pm ET on the Fox News Channel, the initial discussion thread about it at Daily Kos was already collecting comments like the following ones which are representative of hundreds of messages that soon appeared there (the first two below, by the way, were the first two to be posted):

We spend billions in Iraq

While we fall apart at home.

We have been warned

by engineers that our nation's infrastructure is in dire need of repair and upgrade.

Who needs terrorism when the inept GOP runs our nation into the ground. The "terrorists" can just sit back and watch as our nation falls apart.

Mission Accomplished.

No one has the balls to take this on

Every week there's a new national tragedy...tainted food, nutcases with automatic weapons, structural damage to cities, hospital patients dropped on the streets, dysfuctional transportation system, poorly cared for vets, trashed education system, national disasters from global warming. I am waiting for a national figure with the balls to call these warning signs what they are: Republican disdain for and neglect of government oversight,venality, insensitivity to human suffering, tax breaks for rich folks, blatant government incompetence, dirty politics, and bleeding our resources in an immoral f-----k war.

God damn right

you want services, you have to PAY FOR THEM.

That includes roads, electric grid, public transportation, airports, air traffic control, police, firemen, schools, colleges, and last AND least, military.

NO corporation is going to do those things. THERE'S NO PROFIT IN IT. And there SHOULDN'T be.

You can't run a 21st century country with a 19th century infrastructure. Or tax structure. Or 19th century thinking.

Scratch that - 16th century thinking.

It is a terrorist attack by Republican budget

cutters

I'm watching this now on Olbermann

I can't help thinking that the Bush tax cuts and corruption has contributed to this. Our country is falling apart, but Bush doesn't care as long as he cronies get to make money.

(some formatting and links omitted)

The only thing people knew was the the bridge collapsed and no one knew why, except these guys who look for any reason to blame Bush.

The conspiracies are going to be running thick at Kos, which is oh so helpful.

When the NTSB puts out their report, you can bet that the consiracies will include any effort to smear the Bush Administration. For example, if there is a problem with the steel used to build the structure, it will be Bush's fault, despite the fact that 40 years ago when the bridge was built, Bush was in college.

Working on the "Summer Slide"

More than a few school systems are using short summer programs (not summer school) to help students prevent the summer slide, that dip in readin and math skills that occurs over the summer in a fair number of students. The Baltimroe Sun looks at a program at Annapolis High in nearby Annapolis Maryland.

Research shows that children, particularly those from low-income families, slip in reading and math over the summer if they don't receive appropriate enrichment to reinforce school lessons. The findings have grabbed attention in Washington, where Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are co-sponsoring a bill that would, among other things, grant $100 million to five states selected by the U.S. secretary of education to fund summer programs for children from disadvantaged families.

"Everyone would expect an athlete or a musician's performance to suffer if they didn't practice. The research suggests the same is true for students and their academic work," said Ron Fairchild, executive director for the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University. "We know, through research, that students who don't practice lose ground every summer. Those losses are cumulative and grow the achievement gap that schools are working so hard to erase."

Just about all children have some sort of slide during the summer and it is not unreasonable. It is also not unreasonable to try to do something about it. But these "focused efforts" tend to ignore the whole problem--that of our school calendar.

Every year, the issue comes up and every year nothing is really done about either the summer slide or the school calendar that creates it. Most schools in America close somewhere around the end of May or early June and then reopen a week or two before Labor Day. Most school calendars are 180 class days long and include that nearly two and half to three month break.

Like most things in American education, the school calendar is a relic of the past, based on an agrarian calendar. The agrarian calendar is no more applicable to education as a mule drawn plow is. Yet we continue to do it based on all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is tradition.

But if we as a nation are going to be serious about incresing the quality of our education system, close the achievement gap and really prepare our kids for life outside of school, then having a more year round schedule just makes more sense. A school year of 200 days, with longer breaks spread out over then entire year makes sense. Below is a sample of a 200 day school calendar (I have put 2007-2008 dates in for exampels:

Sep. 4--Tuesday After Labor Day--School Begins and continues for 30 straight days, thorough October 15
Oct. 16-19 Fall Break--this is just a four day class free break. Teachers would still be working, either for in-service training or for parent conferences or both.
Oct. 22--Nov. 16--20 straight days of class--ending with the end of quarter
Nov. 19-23--Thanksgiving Break--one week long--employees work first two days
Nov. 26-Dec. 21--20 Days of class
Dec. 24-Jan. 4--two week Holiday break--all employees off as well
Jan. 7-Feb. 15--30 straight days of class--end of second quarter
Feb. 18-22--one week break for students--Employees work entire week--in-service or conferences.
Feb. 25-Mar. 28--25 Days of Class
Mar. 31-Apr. 11--Spring Break of two weeks--Everyone off.
Apr. 14-May 23--30 days of class, end of thrid quarter included in the time frame.
May 26-May 30--Summer Break 1--Employees working.
Jun. 2-Jun. 27--20 Days of Class
Jun. 30-Jul. 11--Independence Day Break--everyone off.
Jul. 14--Aug. 15--25 Days of Class--end of school year.
Aug 18-Sep. 1--"Summer Break" Three weeks.

Now of course, in order to achieve this type of schedule, a school system has to be willing to do three things it may not want to do. First, it must weather a withering storm of criticism from parents and teachers and unions. But all the arguments about vacation time and schedule disruptions are bogus. No private sector and most public sector workers won't allow vacations of more than three weeks at a time except in the most unusual of circumstances. There are lots of one and two week breaks in this schedule--plenty of time for vacations.

Second, the lengthening of the school year by 20 days must be filled with curricula, and one would hope better materials. This means that school systems would have to re-tool curricula to alter the expected time of learning things, i.e. would algebra start sooner, say in sixth or seventh grade since by the time a student gets to those grades, they will have had, hopefully, 100 days of added instruction in math and no pesky three week reviews at the beginning of each year. So a student under this schedule would be nearly a year ahead of a sixth or seventh grader under the 180, long summer schedule.

Third and finally, a 200 day, full year, calendar affects the business processes of the school system. Summers are often used to order books, refurbish schools and facilities. This kind of work would have to be spaced out over a year, rather than concentrated in 10 weeks durin the summer.

But a 200 days school calendar obviates teh need for "summer slide programs" which probably cost as much per student for teh program as it would for keeping the child in school longer each year.

A Grunt's Eye View of Iraq

Mario Loyola has a grunt's eye view of Iraq. While there is good news coming out of Iraq daily, there remains many pockets of the country where the news isn't always good. As teh soldier Loyola spoke to noted, corruption in the Iraqi police is rampant. The military is pretty good and getting better and the average Iraqi citizen wants to partner with Americans but lives in a state of constant fear.

Loyola notes that the war on terror will be fought on a long term, much like the Cold War was a long term war:

This young soldier has spent his tour of duty in one of the worst neighborhoods of Baghdad — ergo, one of the worst in Iraq — and it should come as no surprise that he is pessimistic. He doesn’t know what the generals know, what Americans are starting to find out: that across Iraq, soldiers like him are seeing a different picture than he is — a light at the end of the tunnel in some parts, a feeling that we’re winning in others — a palpable sense that we’ve turned the corner, that the defeat of our enemies here is becoming inevitable.

But this soldier’s stories seemed to me a salutary warning that America needs to focus on the task at hand and avoid the allure of soaring, unreachable goals. Among conservatives, “realists” long scoffed at the democracy-building mission, focusing instead on establishing security in Iraq. But even the seemingly limited goal of establishing security in Iraq is a bridge we don’t need to reach in order to complete our mission in Iraq. The war on terror may go on for decades, and the terrorists have made Iraq the central front.

Read the whole thing.

Talk About Big Brother

British Police want to get DNA from speeding drivers and litters for a criminal database, according to the Times of London.

The demand for a huge expansion of powers to take DNA comes as a government watchdog announced the first public inquiry into the national DNA database.

There is growing concern among MPs and civil liberties groups about the number of children under 10 and young black men on the database — the biggest in the world. But a number of police forces in England and Wales are backing proposals that would add millions more samples to it.

The Association of Chief Police Officers gave a warning, however, that allowing police to take samples for non-recordable offences — crimes for which offenders cannot be imprisoned — might be perceived as indicative of “the increasing criminalisation of the generally law-abiding public”.

That is not good news for the Brits. A DNA database for felons is one thing, for speeders, it is quite another.

What, No Motels Around?

an Indiana couple was arrested on indencent exposure charges after stopping in a shaded area to have sex in their car. The big problem, the shady area was in front of a day care center.

Ayers, 31, and Declouette, 43, were arrested on public indecency charges when the day care center's operator called cops after spotting the couple getting busy in public. As noted in the below Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department report, when Officer Eli McAllister responded to the scene, "I stood there for approximately two minutes, and they were so engrossed in their recreational activity that they did not notice me." Declouette explained that he had first met Ayers earlier that day and they had been "driving around town, until they found a nice shaded spot to have sex." He added that he was unaware that the chosen location was in front of Cookies Child Care.

OOOKKKAAAYYY!!!

CA Cheating Charter School Closed

A little over a week ago, this story about a charter school in Oakland, CA that changed grades and transcripts made the rounds of the edu blogs. Well, Darren at Right on the Left Coast notes that the school's governning board voted to close the school.This move was done by the school's management, not by the local school board or chartering authority, although it is highly likely that the school's charter would have been pulled.

When people talk about accountability in education, this is one aspect of that accountability. The school alledgedly undertook some shady practices and rather than face the long term consequences of damaging their students futures because of the inevitable questions about the accuracy of its documents, it decided to face the short term consequences of angering parents and students by closing.

In the end, the shady practices may be been the work on one or two people. But that doesn't matter, the cloud of public scandal would have followed these students even if their grades were on the level.

One thing that is important to note--had this occured at a traditional public school, the school would continue operating--possibly as before, with only one or two people getting sacked. Charters can be closed if they are failures--traditional public schools can't. Think about that when you consider whether charters are a good thing or not.

Free Expression as a Hate Crime

Stephen Littau at The Liberty Papers examines free speech in light of an incident at Pace University where a man is charged with a hate crime for allegedly throwing a copy of the Koran into a toilet. Littau writes of listening to a radio program covering the issue and the weakness of the hosts arguements that this should be a hate crime:

Gallagher’s arguments got even weaker from there. Several callers challenged him on this notion and Gallagher would ask questions like (paraphrasing) “Should we consider it free speech when someone paints swastikas on a Jewish person’s home?” and “What about burning a cross in the lawn of an African American, is that free speech?” Perhaps his most absurd example was whether or not a person dressed in Nazi uniform goose stepping in a Jewish neighborhood should be protected by the First Amendment.

All of these questions can be easily answered if only we go back to the basic idea that each individual has the natural rights of life, liberty, and property (“your freedom ends where my nose begins”); nowhere in our Constitution is there a right to not be offended. Painting swastikas on a Jewish person’s home or burning a cross in an African American’s yard are both violations of these individuals’ right to property, and therefore, the perpetrator should be prosecuted on those grounds.

So, what about the racist bastard goose stepping in a Jewish neighborhood? Assuming the idiot does so on public property, s/he is protected by the First Amendment. Being an anti-Semitic moron, while infuriating to most sensible people, is not a crime nor should it be.

One could argue that these above acts would be acts of intimidation and could warrant criminal prosecution (certainly in the first two examples would be prosecutable without “hate crimes” laws, the last example would still be a bit of a stretch) but I fail to see how desecrating a book which some people deem as “holy” even rises to this standard. There’s no question that desecrating a holy book is offensive to a great majority of people, but a crime? Thomas Jefferson found fault with much of the Bible and therefore proceeded to physically cut and paste the portions of the Bible that he found to be authentic to create his own interpretation of the Bible and discarded the rest. References to the virgin birth, the resurrection, angels, and other miracles were all omitted from the Jefferson Bible. Clearly, if someone like Gallagher knew of someone doing something like this today, he would regard this person as a hate criminal.

Was what the man did disrespectful? Sure, but certainly far less disrespectful than flying a plane into a building.

The whole problem with "hate crimes" is that the the politically correct seek to punish those with thoughts that are wrong. The strange thing is that most hate crimes can be prosecuted as regular crimes as Littau pointed out.

To me what is interesting about the Pace incident is that the news stories I have seen on teh incident don't say who owned the copy of the Koran. Was the book stolen from someone? If so that is petty theft and vandalism. In a civil court, the man can be tried for the tort of conversion (converting another person's property for your own use). The crime being perpetrated in "hate crimes" prosecutions is committed against the defendant for exacerbating the nature of his crime because his victim happened to be a member of a "protected class" or special group. Ask yourself this question, if the perpetrator had thrown a Bible or a Torah or the Book of Mormon in teh toilet, would he be charged with theft and vandalism or a hate crime? Chances are the former and that is what is wrong with hate crimes--a double standard.

But speech cannot be a hate crime. Words are just that, words. Actions may be criminal--theft and vandalism are criminal acts. But speaking out and take actions with one's own property (a possiblity in teh Pace case) is not criminal. Your speech may reveal you to be a naive at best or stupid at worst bigot, but being a bigot and an idiot are not crimes.

Democrats and a Political Solution

Much has been made of late of teh need for a "political solution" to the problems in Iraq. To be sure, with an improving military and security situation on the ground, a "political solution" seems to be next on the to do list. But as pointed out in this Redstate piece, the "military/security" solution and the "political" solution on inextricably intertwined.

The standard bleat in the media that is rapidly becoming the conventional wisdom on Iraq is the phrase "we need a political solution" in Iraq. As opposed to what, one is tempted to ask. A supernatural solution?

snip

This is just another set of moving goalposts that is being used to flog the administration. We've seen this movie and its sequels every six months or so since the war began. It started with the preditions of tens of thousands of US casualties taking Baghdad (the Russians are helping Saddam, donchaknow, and Russia means Stalingrad, and Stalingrad only had one river while Bagdad has *two* rivers so it will be twice as bad), then it was the Lawrence of Arabia theme of the insurgents cutting US supply lines to Kuwait, and it was the Shi'a uprising, and it was the failed votes for the Iraqi constitution and government, and it goes on and on. None of this is to say that the war has not been fraught with difficulties but each and every time the difficulty du jour has been overcome it has been met with a sneer and a hearty "that was easy, this new problem is really, really difficult."

The growing interdependence of the religious sects on the local level is belied by the partisanship on the national level. Until the local level cooperation percolates up to the national level, the Iraqi national government will be hamstrung and largely ineffective. I would imagine that a vote of no-confidence is not far away and new elections not far behind. This maybe on step on the road to a political solution, but as Streiff points out, you cannot have a political solution without a military one.

Withdrawal from Iraqi is the equivalent of punting on the issue and hoping the Iraqis can solve their own problems, both militarily and politically.

Freddy Adu Joins Portugal's Benefica in $2 Million Deal

U.S. soccer phenom Freddy Adu, the youngest player ever signed by Major League Soccer four years ago, has been traded to Benefic of Protugal. Adu has been playing for Real Salt Lake in the MLS for this season, but under FIFA rules, became eligible to join a foriegn club. When RSL acquired Adu in a trade before the start of this season, RSL knew that Adu's departure was all but certain. Rumors abounded about where Adu would go in Europe, a goal of his for some time. Celtic in the Scottish Premier League was rumored as was Chelsea in the English Premier League at one time or another. To be honest, Benefica was not a club I though he would join, but his promise as a youngester have not really yeilded fruit so the bigger teams were probably not interested in him just yet.

Adu's career at DC United was markd by mediocre goal scoring and assists with eleven goals and 17 assists in three seasons, includuing the 2005 season where he spent more time with the U.S. Under 20 squad than he did with DC United. However, despite his gifts on the field, he was still a smart-alecky kid who thought he should get more playing time. Then-DC United coach Peter Novak did not start Adu in every match and Adu spent most of his first season coming in off the bench. The lack of playing time began to chafe Adu a great deal and the lack of goal scoring began to chafe DC United. The trade to RSL came as no surprise, but Adu has missed much of this season again playing for the U-20 national team in its strong run in the U-20 World Cup in Canada. Adi has played in 11 games this season for the struggling RSL, scoring just one goal and 2 assists. RSL is lagging far behind in the MLS Western Conference, with just nine points in 16 games thus far with a dismal 1-9-6 record.

Adu's transfer comes at a time when his stock may be rising. His performance in the U-20 World Cup included a prolific 3 goals and 4 assists in five games, thus taking part in 7 of the 11 goals scored by the U.S. in the Cup. His international play has been remarkably steady and thus the appeal to moving to Europe now before the opening of the Eurpoean season. Benefica, once a dominant team in European soccer (having won the Euro championship in 1961 and 1962), has done okay in recent years, finishing thrid in the Portugese league last year. Don't look for Adu to start with Benefica this year very much, perhaps in matches later in the season. But the Eurporean training and playing environment are probably much more akin to Adu's talents, which are much more free-flowing than he was able to experience in the MLS.


The struggling RSL is making out pretty good on the deal, with a $2 million dollar trasfer fee and eligibility to acquire another international player under MLS rules. I would expect the club to attempt to sign either a couple of younger players with goal scoring potential or an aging veteran scorer from a foriegn league. With this season essentially a wash for RSL, the younger players may be a better choice.

Giuliani's Health Care Plan

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced his health care plan yesterday, although it lacked details. Calling his Democratic rivals' plans "socialist," Giuliani proposed a radical realignment of how health insurance in provided in American. Instead of an employer based system, the result of a World War II era appeal for workers, Giuliani would offer tax exemptions of up to $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for families to buy their own insurance on the open market. Giuliani explicitly rejected that idea of any employer mandate that would require companies to provide health insurance or any mandate that individuals buy insurance, a swipe at the universal program signed into law by rival Mitt Romney in Massachusetts last year. Marc Santora of the New York Times writes:

In proposing a tax exemption of up to $15,000 for a family and $7,500 for individuals, Mr. Giuliani said that money could be used by consumers to buy an insurance policy of their liking. The money left over, he said, could be put into a “health savings account” to be used to pay for deductibles or other uncovered medical expenses.

Mr. Giuliani said the resulting flood of competition among insurers for customers would lead them to reduce the costs of their policies, estimating that only 20 million to 30 million of the 120 million who currently get their insurance through an employer would need to sign up for individual insurance plans for that to happen.

“You have to start bringing the price down before you can figure out how many people can you include,” he said at a news conference after the speech. “It can’t be done with a magic wand all at once.”

While insurance may begin to cost less, the real impact will be in people starting to realize exactly how much health care really costs. Most employees have no idea how much insurance costs unless they are forced to by COBRA coverage or their own insurance. Employers provide a massive subsidy for health insurance in most cases and that is unknown and unrealized compensation for most Americans.

With the knowledge of how much health insurance actually costs and how much individuals services for health care actually costs, along with how one impacts the other, there will be a consumer drive to lower costs. The market force to keep prices lower will improve the health care spending in this country.

But there is an added benefit for Americans-higher salaries. First, with the expiration of employer provided health care, people will be forced to pay for the health insurance, out of pocket, until tax time. This means that they will seek pay increases to cover the additional cost. Employers on the other hand, by not providing health insurance benefits will lose that tax break (employers pay payroll taxes, but that is exempt from their taxable income) that comes with the compensation benefit. In order to avoid a higher tax hit, they will increase salaries somewhat to compensate. Employers could also increase the value of other benefits like 401(k) matching and other benefits, but the biggest bump will come in salary.

Even with Giuliani's health plan, there is still the matter of addressing actual health care costs. Better information, and payments out of pocket for care and insurance, will go a long way to informing consumers about how much care really costs. A few more details on the plan will go a long way to helping Americans come to grips with such a massive change in health insurance provision in this country. Giuliani will need a transition period, to allow insurers to develop and get approved plans to be offered (plans would need approval by the state insurance commissioners). The details will also satisfy question regarding ERISA and the technicalities of insurance in general, such as how the pools would work, etc.

Still, I like the plan at least so far.

Rep. Jennings Paid No Payroll Taxes for Campaign Staffers

Oops.

Democratic congressional candidate Christine Jennings went more than a year without paying taxes on both of her campaign committees’ payrolls, Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports show.

Jennings paid no payroll taxes on one committee, “Chris Jennings for Congress,” until May 23 of this year, more than three years after its first salary payment. On another committee, “Christine Jennings for Congress,” Jennings paid no payroll taxes until July 31, 2006, about 13 months after its first salary payment.

“Chris Jennings for Congress,” which Jennings used for her 2004 campaign in Florida’s 13th congressional district, lists a lump sum of $23,835.93 paid to the IRS on May 23. The payment came after years of inactivity.

The latter committee, which she used for her 2006 bid for the same seat, includes 15 separate payments to the IRS totaling more than $100,000 between July 31 and the end of 2006, but no payments prior to that period.

Jennings announced two weeks ago that she would run for the seat again in 2008.

Jennings claims to have found the error internally, but this is a pretty big error to go unnoticed for several months, let lone years.

Stupid.

Baltimore Sun Reacts to Charter School Ruling

Normally, the Baltimore Sun is not a group of people I would agree with, but while they don't like the ruling by the Court of Appeals on charter school funding, they do make some good suggestions for future activity:

a more practical solution might be for Baltimore's school board members and new schools CEO Andres Alonso to sit down with members of the state board and try to convince them that a recent funding formula offered to charter schools by the city school system is satisfactory even under the court's ruling.

This is a common sense approach.

The Court of Appeals opinion does not enshrine the State Board of Education's funding model, only the supremacy of the State Board's rulings over local school district wishes. If a local school district can make a good case for a different model, and the charters are willing to accept it, I don't think the State Board of Education should be so inflexible as to outright reject the new funding model.

The Sun digresses badly at the end of the editorial though:

That's why the latest ruling begs for some clarification by the General Assembly, which has not gotten far with proposals that offered more-realistic calculations for charters. After all, the money for charter schools is likely to come out of money allocated for traditional schools. Pitting charter schools, which should be prized for their independence and different approaches to learning, against traditional schools is not the way to help students.

The last sentence is dead on accurate, the competition does not help anyone. But the solution to this funding issue is not for the General Assembly to come up with a one-size-fits-all funding scheme for all Maryland Charter Schools. Just because chaters are entitled to equal funding does not mean they will need or want equal funding.

Flexibility in funding will have to be the key. The Court of Appeals ruling said that services are not necessarily precluded, but are also that charters are not required to accept services in lieu of straight funding. The only body with the necessary flexibility in approaches to this question is the State Board of Education. If the Court of Appeals ruling says nothing else, it does place a great deal of faith in the SBE's judgment. Let's allow the SBE the flexibility to address the issue-either through a series of declaratory rulings or a promulgated rulemaking. Inflexible legislative solutions will do more harm than good.

Michael Savage is an Idiot

Two days ago, the news broke about Chief Justice John Robert's seizure. Nutroot Democrats of course made sick remarks. Most people hoped that the Chief Justice would be okay. But then there are idiots like Michael Savage. From Media Matters:

On the July 30 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage reacted to news that Chief Justice John Roberts had suffered a seizure that day by raising the possibility that "his health was in some way tampered with by the Democrats." Savage said, "Something's wrong with this picture," after noting that Roberts' seizure occurred just three days after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he would seek in general to reject any future Supreme Court nomination made by President Bush.

Leaving aside Schumer's stupidity in making the comments he did about any future Bush nominations to the Supremem Court, should they happen. Leave aside the willingness of Schumer to look the other way when his staffers illegally obtain credit reports on certain Senate candidates. I don't think Schumer is the head of conspiracy to tamper with the Chief's health.

Schumer may be a blowhard, he may be silly, but he is not a voodoo expert.

My local radio station in Frederick carries Savage's program. I will not listen and have urged them to drop the program in favor of pretty much anything else.

Michael Savage is an idiot.

Carnival of Education Open

Dr. Homeslice Hosts the Carnival of Education this week and its a good one.

Go check it out.

I like Brett's post at the DeHaviland Blog, talking about how the charter school approval process actually inhbits educational innovation.

I also like Kim's discussion of the Junie B. Jones books. No child's book is perfect, but my sister, whose daughter has read many of the Junie B. Jones books, likes that fact that her daughter likes to read. Is that not the real point?

DC Schools Still Have Problems

Of course, DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is not a miracle worker, but she, Mayor Adrian Fenty and school facilities chief Allen Lew have set themselves a one year deadline for avoiding the mistakes of this and years past.

In terms of great snark in a major paper, this lead paragraph by Nikita Stewart in the Washington Post should be an instant classic:

One month before school starts, District officials said yesterday that half of D.C. public schools do not have all their required textbooks and half of the school buildings will not have any air conditioning on the first day of school -- conditions as traditional in the city as back-to-school shopping for a new box of crayons.(emphasis added)

That is just great and completely summarizes the annual problems DC schools face when opening for students.

With about three weeks until school starts, textbook deliveries are incorrect and/or incomplete. Many schools have no air conditioning, and for anyone who has ever been to DC in August and September will tell you, air conditioning is practically a must have.

Fenty, Rhee and Lew gave an overview of academic programs and construction scheduled in the coming months and of the obstacles that they have discovered since the mayor took control of public schools in June.

"The chancellor and I are completely disgusted by what we find," Fenty said during the news conference about the state of city schools.

As part of the update on school readiness, Rhee said 290 teacher slots have been filled out of 475 vacancies. Rhee also said she has frozen the hiring of nonessential employees as a cost-saving measure. "No hires will be made at central office without my explicit approval," she said.

The missing textbooks are attributable to a broken ordering system, Rhee said. For example, French textbooks were sent to M.M. Washington Career High School, which does not offer French.

Under school system policy, principals are responsible for ordering textbooks for their schools. Rhee cited poor inventory control at schools and the central office.

When I read passages like that, it makes me wonder, many corporations have such accurate inventory control systems that they know not only how many of one item they but their actual physical location in the world. These examples simply highlight how far behind the times the DC schools are. Rhee, who has promised to focus on hiring high quality teachers and principals will either need a truly gifted business manager for the schools or a great deal of luck to avoid these inventory and ordering snafus.

DC schools are in trouble, of this we have known for sometime. But recognition of troubles and finding solutions are two different things. For example, Allen Lew has discovered that the problem with the DC schools' air conditioning is not the availability of air conditioning units, but of sufficient power infrastructure to support those units. Lew will not only have to make sure that the air conditioners work next year, he is going to have to completely re-wire the schools--a major project in itself.

Fenty, Rhee and Lew will have to be dropping some serious cash to achieve the goal they have set. The question obviously is whether or not the DC citizenry will be patient enough for the next year to allow them to do their job or will the price tag, which will high, be enought to creat problems. The DC City Council, not particular fans of Fenty and Rhee, will likely keep them on a short financial leash. Lew, who is widely respected, may get some more wiggle room for his financial needs. But the Council will probably do a great deal to gum up the works, if for no other reason than a desire to see Fenty and Rhee fail in order to get the "see, I told you it wouldn't work" moment. Which of course, is sad since the ultimate losers in such a scenario are not Fenty and Rhee, but DC kids.