Flutterby™! : promoting "No Child Left Behind"

promoting "No Child Left Behind"

2005-01-10 16:38:44.54394+00 by Dan Lyke 24 comments

Dang. Every time petronious makes an entry I end up coming up with lots of stuff. So I'd resolved to make no entries today, except that I'm seeing this USA Today article on the Education Department hiring Armstrong Williams to promote the "No Child Left Behind" act from a bunch of sources, and it deserves a little airplay. I have a lot of issues with things like anti-drug ads paid for with taxpayer money, but this is taking the lying propaganda one step further.

[ related topics: Politics moron Current Events Education ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-10 18:04:00.795803+00 by: petronius

I do what I can.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 06:34:50.084036+00 by: TheSHAD0W

http://boortz.com/nuze/200501/01102005.html#williams

An alternative view.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 11:19:04.245697+00 by: polly

i'm not happy with the "no child left behind" act...i feel that schools are required to push students through school whether or not the student has achieved academic success. there are a LOT of kids out there who cannot read! yet, we are promoting them and moving them on out of school...and it's not only reading, these kids are deficient in all core classes. yet, we push them through school to become.....burger flippers?

bush using our money to further his propaganda? i'm not even going to waste my breath discussing his blatent use of our money and governemnt.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 15:19:56.29347+00 by: ziffle

The solution of course is to make all schools private.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 17:19:21.068652+00 by: Dan Lyke

Boortz's comment doesn't sound to me like it's an alternative statement at all, in fact he's pretty much piling on when he says:

Now I'm waiting for him [Williams] to apologize to other conservative radio and television talk show hosts.

Granted he gives Williams room to change his story, but I think it's also worth pointing out that there are other instances of the feds creating "news". Since registration is required, I'll quote liberally:

WASHINGTON — Shortly before last year's Super Bowl, many news stations aired a story by Mike Morris describing plans for a new White House ad campaign on the dangers of drug abuse.

What viewers did not know was that Morris is not a journalist and his "report" was produced by the government, actions that constituted illegal "covert propaganda," according to an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Ziffle: I'll go there, but mostly if California and the Northeast can secede from the union and set up their own trade agreements with the rest of the country.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 17:24:54.269114+00 by: ziffle

This morning the morning business show pundits were saying to only invest in real estate in the 'red' states.

Funny I think both the red and the blue states would like a secession. And then we reds could go visit the blues where 'what happens there stays there' and have forbidden erotic adventures and go home - to church - ha ha..- is NV a blue state?

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 17:56:17.560861+00 by: Dan Lyke

But what would the red states do if we cut off the foreign aid to them? The red states are taking a lot of welfare from the blue states, and while it's to our advantage to keep some food production local, there's a lot that could yet get taken advantage of in terms of agriculture and manufacturing elsewhere if the political ties got cut.

Without the blue states there's little that separates the red states from, say, Mexico.

For the record, Nevada was barely red.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 20:34:16.103276+00 by: ziffle

Actually I don't believe the blues are supporting the reds.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 20:36:10.19107+00 by: Larry Burton

I pointed out once before here that the red state/blue state thing is not quite as clear cut as it appears to be. All states are really just different shades of purple. If there is any secession taking place it should be cities or rural areas rather than just whole states.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 21:23:33.481781+00 by: Dan Lyke

Ziffle, the data is out there, you can do your own analysis or trust others: The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard does breakdowns of net federal spending by state, per capita even, or check out http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxingspending.html or http://www.ncpa.org/pi/taxes/aug98j.html .

If you need a refresher on voting patterns, Electoral-Vote.com is still up, and there's Eric's Flutterby entry on visualization of voting patterns.

And yes, Larry, it isn't split quite that easily, but it's fun to stereotype.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 21:45:39.756098+00 by: Diane Reese

Y'know, Larry, even with the various shades of purple, I'd far and away rather live in an independent California purple than almost any current red state shade of purple. If any state has the means to survive as an independent, it's us. (Although I'd like it even better if it was the entire left coast seceeding together.) Let's go for it.

(PS ziffle: I dare you to improve on the return I've gotten on my Bay Area real estate in the last seven years. If you can do it, more power to you, but I suspect you'd have a difficult time of it.)

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 22:08:39.051113+00 by: Dan Lyke

Diane, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future profits. With rents still sagging in the Bay Area, I could be persuaded that room for future growth is in less populated areas.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 23:22:23.506536+00 by: ziffle

Dan, those figures look like they include defense which should not be included -- and the figures I saw were per capita which would make CA low because of all the people there as a ratio. I suspect the figures, yes.

Diane, I can only dream of a return on real estate like Ca has had in the past, very true. I wonder if that can be sustained.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-12 01:00:15.438718+00 by: polly

according to the weather channel, real estate in california is sliding into the ocean due to floods and mudslides. where will the property lines be marked?

are there any deserted islands left that don't get submerged when it storms?

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-12 01:27:35.388465+00 by: Dan Lyke

Ziffle, if you find military figures by state, I'd love to see 'em. This has been a question for me, too.

My gut feel is that this'll make it look even more biased, because you have states like California (with its ship yards, and San Diego) and Washington (Hanford, and ship yards) already paying more in federal taxes than they receive, but it might help Michigan, Virginia and Nevada.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-12 15:58:54.328246+00 by: Dan Lyke

Wow, interesting how defense money gets spent, state-wise: http://www.nemw.org/fedspend4.htm from http://www.nemw.org/fedspend.htm

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-12 16:26:50.130016+00 by: ziffle

Well I drive through these red states and they seem empty - no glorious goverment projects, no massive welfare (compared to say L.A.) situations and it seems like Calif has all those. I think the statistics do not tell the whole story - maybe they include research expenditures, defense, who knows what? I guess NV has area 51 - theat would skew the numbers, eh?

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-12 17:29:35.22838+00 by: Dan Lyke

Ziffle, I think you're missing the massive welfare that is our current agricultural system, and the fact that rural areas are poor, and poor people use welfare.

California has lots of state and local government projects, lots of big infrastructure, but more of those are locally funded than, say, Soddy Daisy's sewer system (which, if I remember right, was built from a federal grant).

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-12 20:47:17.681995+00 by: ebradway

Would you consider TVA to be welfare? How about the Interstate Highway system?

BTW, New Mexico has Las Alamos National Laboratory just as Tennessee has Oak Ridge NL. Personally, I consider both of these to be defense related but they are actually part of the the Department of Energy.

P.S. I had some data errors in my original data I used for my cartograms. I need to redo them. Are there any other statistical factors anyone would like to see as a cartogram?

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-12 21:30:57.218501+00 by: Dan Lyke

I think that TVA is clearly welfare, there's never been any argument that it's a large federal subsidy for regional economic development.

The interstate highway isn't quite as defined, although probably most of the funding dollars nowadays are for things that are welfare (ie: most of the three-digit interstates).

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-17 16:34:21.355043+00 by: ziffle

If we move five million immigrants into the State of Mayberry, our per capita receipts might be low too.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-17 17:20:00.760114+00 by: Dan Lyke

Only if those immigrants end up paying more in federal taxes than they take in benefits.

Which is quite possible, immigrants tend to be motivated. I don't know how it is there, but out here it's the white natives who stand on the corner with "homeless and hungry, please help" signs, but the central Americans who will actually hop in your car and work for you (and work freakin' hard, I might add).

Tennessee would probably do really well with a big influx of people who haven't had a safety net to fall back on. Run your real estate prices up, too!

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-21 15:50:44.536378+00 by: ziffle

In the State of Mayberry its the hispanics who pay their rent on time, in cash. They work off the books - pay no taxes - and send the excess back to Mexico. I like their style actually.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-21 16:54:35.837783+00 by: Dan Lyke

I assume you've seen the Reason article proposing that the best thing we could do for the tsunami survivors is let 'em work in the U.S.? (thanks to crasch)