The Gvlshornbook

There is an expedition to Mt. Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe to raise money and awareness for Autism Speaks. Ryan Gunaskara, the lead climber, has a brother who is autistic. He is climbing for him and others.

Ryan is asking for donations. Either a set amount or a per metre pledge 1¢ per metre = $56.42US.

Autism Speaks, Home Page

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel has come up with the right response to Dick Cheney’s attempt to suggest that the Office of the Vice President is not part of the executive branch.

The House Democratic Caucus chairman wants to take the Cheney at his word. Cheney says his office is "not an entity within the executive branch," so Emanuel wants to take away the tens of millions of dollars that are allocated to the White House to maintain it… If Cheney’s a member of the legislative branch, the Democratic Caucus chair suggests, the vice president won’t need all the money that currently goes to pay for his executive office, extensive staff and that secure undisclosed location that is so often his haunt. So Emanuel plans this week to offer an amendment to a spending bill that would defund the Office of the Vice President.

Of course, there would still be funding for the Office of the Senate President. But, let’s be frank, the rare tie-breaking duties and ceremonial administrative functions associated with that position won’t require more than a smidgen of the money that now goes to the vice president’s epic executive-branch operations.

"This amendment will ensure that the vice president’s funding is consistent with his legal arguments," say Emanuel, a former aide to President Clinton who, like Cheney, has served in both the legislative and executive branches.

You’re move,  Little Dickie. This will also remove "Executive Privelege" from his vocabulary.

There was a wonderful thing called The

 

Fairness Doctrine. U.S. Broadcasting Policy The policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission that became known as the "Fairness Doctrine" is an attempt to ensure that all coverage of controversial issues by a broadcast station be balanced and fair. The FCC took the view, in 1949, that station licensees were "public trustees," and as such had an obligation to afford reasonable opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance. The Commission later held that stations were also obligated to actively seek out issues of importance to their community and air programming that addressed those issues. With the deregulation sweep of the Reagan Administration during the 1980s, the Commission dissolved the fairness doctrine. This doctrine grew out of concern that because of the large number of applications for radio station being submitted and the limited number of frequencies available, broadcasters should make sure they did not use their stations simply as advocates with a singular perspective. Rather, they must allow all points of view. That requirement was to be enforced by FCC mandate.

 

Now, the Fairness Doctrine assured that all opposing viewpoints were heard, so the populace coudl decide for itself. But there were those who thought that was wrong. wrong.wrong. And so they went to a president who even when he was the head of the Screen Actors Guild showed signs of mental impairment on what became known i SAG as "The Great Giveaway"

 

There are conservatives that are afraid of the Fairness Docrien. They call it "Orwellian"  huh? They believe that giving an opposing view is an attempt to silence the poor oppressed creatures they delude themselves to be

sigh….. 

Los Angeles Times: Do away with public schools

JONAH GOLDBERG

Do away with public schools

Government is inept at running schools. It should subsidize education for needy students, then get out of the way.

Government is inept at running schools. It should subsidize education for needy students, then get out of the way. Jonah Goldberg June 12, 2007 HERE’S A GOOD question for you: Why have public schools at all? OK, cue the marching music. We need public schools because blah blah blah and yada yada yada. We could say blah is common culture and yada is the government’s interest in promoting the general welfare. Or that children are the future. And a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Because we can’t leave any child behind.

The problem with all these bromides is that they leave out the simple fact that one of the surest ways to leave a kid "behind" is to hand him over to the government. Americans want universal education, just as they want universally safe food. But nobody believes that the government should run 90% of the restaurants, farms and supermarkets. Why should it run 90% of the schools — particularly when it gets terrible results?

Consider Washington, home of the nation’s most devoted government-lovers and, ironically, the city with arguably the worst public schools in the country. Out of the 100 largest school districts, according to the Washington Post, D.C. ranks third in spending for each pupil — $12,979 — but last in spending on instruction. Fifty-six cents out of every dollar goes to administrators who, it’s no secret, do a miserable job administrating, even though D.C. schools have been in a state of "reform" for nearly 40 years.

 

The premise of Goldberg is simple: MARS NEEDS DRONES. and, you can have a slave society if the would-be slave is cognizant enough to know they are slaves. Teh first schools in this country were private. No Money, no Edumacation.

The Repbulicans, once again, show their contempt for America and the The American Way. It’s no wonder we are fast becoming a permanent jesting stock to the rest of the world

source 

I was asked to stage manage a show over at the Actors Studio. I walked into their temporary space at Baruch College here in nYc, and introduced myself to director Jo Bonney, playwright Israel Horovitz, actors Robert Walsh, Frank Solorzano, and Luca Pierucci. I would have met Ethan Hawk, but he wasn’t at the rehearsal, though he was there to take part in the reading… The rehearsal began, and I thought: "Why am I needed for this? A reading? Apparently, I was the only one asking that question. After an hour, the guy who had asked me to stage manage walks into the theater, a Black Box, and apologizes for being late. That’s when I realized I was at the WRONG FREAKING REHEARSAL. I attended the reading, and thanked Frank Solarzano for not embarassing me about the mix up, and he said: "You fit right in."

Ah, showbiz.

 

Top Bush aide Bartlett leaving White House: AP+ Jun 1 09:47 AM US/Eastern WASHINGTON, June 1 (AP) - (Kyodo)— Dan Bartlett, one of U.S. President George W. Bush’s most trusted advisers and his longest-serving aide, said Friday he is resigning to begin a career outside of government, the Associated Press reported. Bartlett has been with Bush for nearly 14 years, from Bush’s first campaign as governor of Texas, through two races for the White House and more than six years of a presidency marked by costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an ongoing battle against terrorism. As counselor to the president, Bartlett has been at the center of White House decision-making, stepping into the public eye in times of trouble to defend Bush on everything from the unpopular war in Iraq to the government’s bungled response to Hurricane Katrina and the Republicans’ loss of Congress. "He can talk to the president in a candid way, in sort of a family way, that almost nobody else can," White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten told AP.

 
 I guess he got tired of being ignored…